Adrian Romanov
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Natasha was an assassin by trade. A woman who had nothing and no one to tie her down, not even her family. Then she stumbles upon a child all alone in the night and adopts him without a second thought. Her son, Adrian, is more than human, he's the product of an experiment that Odin himself has forbidden. Can Adrian change his mind or will he have all of Asgard to avoid?
1. Chapter 1

It was a cold night in early November, Halloween having just passed the night before.

Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow and known assassin in the dark cold underground the world over, thought it would be like any other night when she wasn't on her job.

That is, boring with an overly developed and healthy case of paranoia. You didn't live as long as she did in a profession of murderers and killers if you didn't have paranoia and situation awareness.

That idea shattered the moment she heard the sound of an infant crying not more than ten feet from her.

Curious, and wondering why the child's mother was out so late with an infant in the slums, she followed the sound.

Though she never told anyone, Natasha did in fact have a small amount of magic. She wouldn't be nearly as good or have taken to the Infinity Serum if she hadn't. In magical terms, she was the equivalent of a squib who had a few odd magical talents. Enough to get her past anti-mundane wards and slip into magical homes unnoticed.

She found the infant in a decidedly too-nice looking basket with a note.

No one was aware that the Black Widow was in town, and whoever had put this child here had laced him with a spell...one that she could immediately tell wasn't harmful in origin, but a rather benign one.

Reading the note, she noticed that the first name was partially smudged.

She looked at the kid. He was absolutely adorable and would likely grow into those looks.

Little Adrian was an orphan, one who had survived an attack on his parents through sheer luck and divine protection...and he needed a home.

Natasha could leave the child here, alone and hope for the best. However the spell that was laced on the note latched onto her core, awakening maternal instincts she hadn't known she still had. She picked up the child and gently rocked him, getting his bawling to stop.

Unseen, a pair of green eyes watched her carefully as the spell his mother had suggested took full hold on the assassin.

Natasha not only took the child, but she kept him. The eyes left their position and went to inform the infant's much older and more powerful sibling of the development so that she could continue her job of guarding her new baby brother. If he couldn't watch out for the child, then at least his daughter could without arising suspicion from the King.

* * *

"Adrian!" Natasha called out.

Adrian Romanov, son of the Black Widow and known super-hacker, raced to the sound of his mother's voice.

_"Yeah mom?"_ he asked in Russian. Natasha had taught him as many languages as she knew and he had taken to them like a duck to water, along with a few other questionable talents of hers.

But he had never killed. She had been firm about that. No assassinations or killing until he was eighteen at least, not outside of self-defense.

It helped that he had built up an immunity to her less lethal strain of the Widow's Kiss and could unleash it on unsuspecting people in an enclosed space without being effected once his body grew used to it.

Today was Adrian's eleventh birthday, and Natasha planned something special for him. They were going to the London zoo to see the animals. Despite being an elite super spy who killed for a living, Natasha was a good mother. Even if she did give her son a rather strong sense of paranoia.

So, every so often they took time to act relatively normal, if only to give Adrian a base idea of how to blend in.

Adrian didn't care...he loved spending time with his mother. When he had been growing up, they had spent hours together. When he was old enough to understand that she would be gone long hours (it wasn't until he was nine that he understood the full truth of her jobs) and that he would have to behave until she returned.

As a consequence Adrian spent long hours on the computer, developing skills that would make S.H.I.E.L.D. just as eager to recruit him as they were to kill his mother.

* * *

Natasha (going by Natalia) and Adrian (going by Andy) went to the zoo to act...well as normal as they could considering who they were.

Adrian loved the zoo, but immediately _hated_ one of the children who had come that day.

A horse faced woman, a man the size of a medium walrus, a ratty looking black-haired boy and a small killer whale who was apparently related to the horse and walrus respectively, kept showing up at nearly _every_ exhibit they went to.

Adrian disliked them all on sight. Natasha had to keep a firm grip on her son as they calmly maneuvered around the group, though from the look on her face she disliked them greatly too.

"Come along now Diddikins," cooed the horse. Natasha made a face behind her back.

Seriously?

Entering the reptile house, Adrian was admiring a Brazilian snake when the spoiled brat that had almost ruined their rare day out together as a family tried to shove him on the ground. Adrian avoided the brat's pudgy hand and when the kid tried to push him again, he knocked his feet out from under him.

And, because this kid had seriously gotten on his nerves from what little exposure he had to the fat tub of lard (and because he had a serious bully vibe going on) he sneered and commented "I didn't know they let the animals _out_ of the exhibits...oh wait, you're a human! What sort of parents do you have to look like a pig in a wig?"

Natasha, overhearing the snide comment, rolled her eyes. She didn't know why Adrian was a cruel smart ass when he was annoyed, but she knew it wasn't _her_ doing. It had to be inherited from his birth parents, whoever they were.

The horse faced bint shrieked loudly about her son being knocked down after he had tried to attack first and went to shove the boy out of the way of her precious child.

Natasha stopped her. This woman and her _son_ had been getting on their nerves all day.

"Is there a problem Andy?" asked Natasha.

"No problem mom. Just some fat pig in a wig pretending to be human tried to shove me," said Adrian calmly.

Dudley, for that was the boy's actual name, couldn't believe what was happening. Another kid who was in the way of what he wanted to do had fought back, and not only that had openly insulted him. And to make matters stranger, his mother had been stopped from immediately going to his aid.

For once in his life, Dudley wasn't going to have his way. In fact his family and cohort, Piers, were promptly kicked out of the zoo despite his mother's shrieking and father's angry oaths...and were summarily banned from ever coming back.

This was supposed to be a late birthday present, since he had to wait until Piers had gotten over a late summer cold before they could come.

Dudley was not happy. And when he wasn't happy he took it out on the first target he could get his hands on. Which, unfortunately, was Piers.

Piers would later retell the story to his mother, and from there things spiraled completely out of control for the soon-to-be former bully Dudley.

Piers had overheard "Andy" making that comment about Dudley and the fact he looked like a pig in a wig, a comment no one had dared to voice for fear of Dudley's revenge, and the banishment of the Dursley family from the London zoo had started his mind on another track.

Why hadn't they noticed Dudley was a fat bastard before now? Sure he was a brute, but he wasn't exactly that smart. In the normal world he was little more than hired muscle, a brutish thug with no redeeming qualities.

And Piers, actually being smarter than his so called 'leader' by a wide margin, decided that it was time for a change.

Later Dudley would wonder how he had gone from the top of the pack in Surrey's small gang to being downsized to being the enforcer. He didn't like it. Not one bit.

When he graduated from Smeltings, he would realize his poor choices had serious consequences and would attempt to be a better person.

It didn't work, but at least he had put in some effort.

* * *

Natasha found it hilarious that _they_ were being the ones apologized to because of the group who had started the mess, and they left with a better mood overall.

Suddenly she noticed something moving inside Adrian's loose shirt. He preferred them because it was so easy to hide his favorite daggers.

"Andy, that had better not be something you have snuck out," she warned.

"Um...maybe?" he said sheepishly.

Natasha sighed.

"What is it, and you had better have a good reason," she told him firmly.

A serpentine head poked out from the neck of his shirt. It was hidden by his hair to others, but Natasha had sharp eyes.

It hissed at Adrian, who hissed back.

"He wanted to see Brazil, and he was tired of being stared at all the time. The glass disappeared during the whole mess and he decided to slither up my pants leg and curl up next to me instead of trying to avoid the human legs," explained Adrian.

Natasha pinched the bridge of her nose. It had been bad enough when Adrian somehow adopted a far too smart crow that had been following them for quite some time (he named it Karasu, since he had been six at the time and they had been in Japan, though it went by Kara for short).

"Ask him if he would be willing to stick around until we happen to go near Brazil. We're going to be in London for the better part of a month, so we can't exactly leave early," she said finally. Adrian was a responsible child, and he cared for animals. It was why she had chosen the zoo...he loved all sorts of beasts.

Adrian hissed to the snake, who bobbed it's head in agreement. It didn't mind acting like a pet snake since they were willing to at least drop him off. It was, after all, a former zoo animal. It was used to humans.

* * *

Adrian was on his laptop looking up Brazil for Verde, the snake he had 'rescued' from the London zoo, when he heard the tap at the window.

Kara screeched at the intruder. Clearly something was off about it.

Adrian's paranoia, born of many years as his mother's only pupil, made him grab a pair of magic-canceling tongs that Natasha had bought the week before as a precaution, to open the window.

An owl flew in with a letter. Adrian removed it carefully, noting that the thing was hissing as the tongs ripped apart several spells on the parchment. The owl hooted reproachfully.

"Kara, get rid of the intruder," said Adrian.

The crow was all too happy to do so, and chased the owl out with vigor.

Adrian took one look at the name and grimaced. He didn't know who this _'Harry Potter_' was or why they believed he was this kid, but he did know a good place to insure that he wouldn't be accidentally picked up by the British and their ridiculous school.

He was home-schooled, and he honestly preferred it that way. Sure, it was nice to hang out with random kids, but he loved being around his mother, who was infinitely more interesting than most other people. Besides, how many kids could say that they were allowed on the internet and traveled the world?

Adrian had tried school once. It was not only boring, but it also told Natasha that her adopted son was more than smart, he was a genius who had yet to learn the word discreet. So she taught him from home when she had the chance, and he spent countless hours on internet chat boards with people three times his age. Not many people could keep up with minds like Tony Stark, or earn his respect before he was even ten.

Besides, teaching him at home meant more bonding time.

Adrian waited until his mother came back before he told her what happened, and they made a trip to Gringotts which was open for it's more nocturnal customers. And they damn near set off every alarm in the place the second Adrian entered it.

They were in for a very, very long night.

Ragnok was a well respected goblin, and he was proud of the fact he had fought and won the right to lead the Gringotts tribe. There were days, however, that it didn't pay to be him.

This was one of those days.

Natasha Romanov, known to the goblins as the Black Widow, had registered her son under her family name so that in the event of her death he would get everything, including the family magics.

The Romani was a well respected Pure Blood family from Russia. Natasha was to be the heir of that family, had they not found she was a squib. However, unlike the British pure bloods, they didn't cast her out nameless. No...they sent her to a branch family, the Romanovs instead. It was an arrangement that worked for both parties in the end.

When Natasha came back as the Black Widow, they had acknowledged the relation and welcomed her as one of the most respected females of the clan. She had cautiously accepted the fact she still had family, but all that meant in the long run was that any children she had that were magical would be made the heir of the Romani clan instead of her.

No one, not even the seers that the goblins employed, expected her to waltz in during the yearly acceptance of the magical children of Europe with the last heir of the Potter family and, if Ragnok's memory served, one of Loki's chosen.

The crow on the boy's shoulder was one of Hel's special messengers, which meant that Loki not only knew of the boy, but had asked his daughter to pay special attention to him.

This was going to be a long night for all parties.

"Lady Romani. Lord Potter," he said respectfully.

"It's Romanov, not Potter," said Adrian automatically. He was proud to be the Black Widow's son.

"Your birth name is Potter, and despite the fact that Natalie Romani has adopted you, it shall remain as such. At least until we get the chance to change your keys," said Ragnok.

Natasha's eyes glinted.

"How much is this going to cost?"

"A much smaller fee than normal, I assure you. The fact you're a pure blood from a noted _neutral_ family, despite being a squib, means that we can avoid any attempts to remove your son from you. At least until he no longer wants to be associated with you, which is highly unlikely."

Ragnok pulled out a sheet of papers.

"Now, only our first business, namely the magical adoption. You're his legal guardian in the mundane world, but since he is a British citizen by birth we'll have to file the change of name in the Ministry. If you give us a time frame, we can do that long after you're in another country so Dumbledore won't be able to try and stop you," said the goblin bluntly.

Natasha read the papers, signed where indicated with the blood quill (Adrian signed the other places) and Ragnok filed them.

"Next is the matter of your estate. I can only assume by the fact you're her son that you have no interest in your family estate or taking up their political positions once you're of age," said Ragnok.

"I'm a hacker, not a politician. Mom's been pretty good at keeping me out of the limelight and being in those circles under my real name is just asking for a target to be put on my back," said Adrian.

There was a reason why Natasha avoided the balls that the Romani threw. She didn't want anyone aware of her birth family. Something they agreed on wholeheartedly.

They would come to her defense when asked, but they had a better business relationship than a familial one. It was safer for all involved.

"Very well. Now, on to the matter of your accounts. You currently have..."

And so they went, working through one item after another. Adrian was registered as home-tutored to the Ministry, which meant that as long as he was in the presence of his teachers, he could use magic outside of the schools.

In this case that was Natasha and the occasional times she returned to Russia. The Romani were of of the higher class in Russia, but the Romanov were considered a minor noble family.

Adrian heavily invested in Tony Stark's company, since he was a sort of friend to the eccentric billionaire, and in an up-and-coming scientist named Richards. He also invested in a school in New York that belonged to a known Mutant sympathizer named Charles Xavier.

All of them were people he occasionally had spirited debates with from the safety of his laptop and his webcam unplugged from his laptop. Adrian wasn't a fool. Some people could hack webcams from afar to see people...but not if the laptop wasn't equipped with one. Tony Stark was one such person.

By the time they left Britain and Europe far behind, the goblins were enjoying the hornet's nest that Adrian Romanov left in his wake upon learning that the famed Harry Potter wasn't going to Hogwarts or any magical school in Europe and likely never would. And with his new name classified so heavily that it would take another goblin war to get to it, there was nothing Dumbledore or the Ministry could do to find him.

Elsewhere, in another realm, Adrian's true father was enjoying the chaos his 'son' had left in his wake.


	2. Chapter 2

Verde immediately decided to stay with Adrian after his first encounter with a large bird who ate boa constrictors. As a snake raised in captivity, it had no idea how to defend against such predators and was properly panicking.

Natasha had found this amusing, and had told her son he was still responsible for his 'pets'. Verde infinitely preferred life as a pet to being a captive inside a cage...at least Adrian let him hunt and he got to eat all the rats he wanted. If Natasha made a point to pick run-down hotels with noted rat infestations with the addition of the boa in their group, Adrian said nothing about it.

He was currently in a rather unhealthy hovel on the outskirts of the Amazon rain forest while his mother went on an assignment to kill a local gang lord that had pissed off the wrong person.

Adrian was used to denying knowing his mother when she acted as the Black Widow, and no one cared about who he was unless he looked like he had money. So long as the hotel bill was paid on time, no one cared who he was or why he was there so long as he didn't cause trouble.

So it came as an annoying shock that what he thought would be a routine lunch would end up like this.

Here's what happened...

* * *

Adrian had left his room with most of his things, one of his mother's safety precautions. People couldn't route through your stuff if you had little and took all your most important things with you after all. He was out to get lunch, with Verde sleeping inside his shirt as usual. It was his preferred spot to snooze, since Adrian gave off enough body heat to make the snake happy. Kara was off eating some local bugs and would find him later.

He had picked a cheap, if not exactly pleasant restaurant that didn't look twice at the fact he couldn't be older than twelve at the least and ordered something to eat. The great thing about the slums was that they didn't give a damn about who came in so long as they paid upfront. If he looked like a runaway, that wasn't their business so long as he paid first.

He was finishing his goat burger and soda when a man came in. He was clearly a foreigner just like Adrian, though judging by the looks the local gang members were giving him, the man wouldn't be left alone for long.

He seemed to linger on Adrian, clearly wondering why a kid his age was all alone in a place like this when he wasn't local.

Adrian continued to ignore him right up until the point the local idiots tried something...and then recognized _him._ Natasha had been careful, but not careful enough. Someone had seen him with his mother and assumed that they knew of each other.

So they decided to try and grab him as well as the obviously broke American.

Adrian decided to run, and to his annoyance the American followed him. Safety in numbers and all that.

It had been such a nice day too.

"I think we've lost them," said Adrian, looking outside. They had ducked into an empty storehouse and he had sent out his snake. Verde had helpfully gone out to knock over some trash cans to create a fake trail before he slithered back to his owner.

"Sorry about that. Why are they after you?" asked the American.

"My mother, most likely. She's out on a job and I was supposed to be hiding in the motel until she got back and we left Brazil. Someone must have recognized her and connected her to me," said Adrian annoyed. Then he grinned. "Good thing I always take the things I need with me. All they'll find is clothes."

"So what's your name?"

"Call me Andy."

"Bruce Banner."

Adrian stopped being on the lookout and actually _looked_ at Banner.

"Huh, so you're Banner. Not what I was expecting," he said.

Bruce blinked.

"You know of me?"

"Your papers on astrophysics are surprisingly well informed, and you don't puff yourself up like all the other so-called experts. Even Tony was impressed with your work and I know for a fact he's dying to discuss some of his theories with you," said Adrian.

"You've read my papers? And understood them?! How old are you?"

"Recently turned eleven. We had better move before those thugs get back. Got anywhere to hide?"

"My house...well, it's less of a house and more of a hovel but you get the idea. I only came into town for supplies," said Bruce.

"I take it you have an infestation of pests?"

"It's a hovel. It's not exactly known for being clean," deadpanned Bruce.

"Verde will be happy then. Mom's been renting the more seedy places since I rescued him," said Adrian.

"You named your pet snake 'green'?" said Bruce amused.

"It gets better, I have a pet crow named Karasu, or Kara for short."

"What's Karasu?"

"Japanese for 'crow'," said Adrian dryly.

"Seriously?" said Bruce amused.

"I was six, and it had been following us for months. Mom thought it was an animagus, a magical person who can turn into an animal at will, but when she had it checked out we found it was actually the familiar of something really powerful. Still have no idea what or who, but whomever Kara belongs to is apparently really, really overprotective of me for some reason."

Adrian paused, and they ducked down. It took them thirty minutes to find Bruce's transport into town without being noticed, and another hour before they were in his hovel. He was in a really, really secluded area...one that wasn't accessible by car. That didn't discount the bike Bruce used, or the broom Adrian had that his mother had bought him while they were in England.

It was a belated birthday present, a Nimbus 2000. Adrian still treasured the days out that they had, but this made getting around a lot easier when they were trying to avoid detection.

The FAA didn't monitor magical flight, and so long as they were discreet and didn't attract attention, they were left alone. Though trying to explain how they got into the country when they didn't have their passports stamped was a pain in the arse.

Bruce looked at his current companion and noticed how Adrian took stock of his 'home'. Things had gotten infinitely harder since the Other Guy had appeared in his life. For the time being at least, he had someone intelligent to talk to.

Adrian heard his mirror go off. His mother preferred two-way mirrors to phones because they couldn't be hacked or tracked.

"_Andy, where the hell are you?"_ she demanded.

"Someone recognized you, and I nearly got captured at a restaurant. Fortunately I've seemed to have made a new friend so we're safe for the moment."

"_You know you're supposed to wait for me before going out," _she said in disapproval.

"You said you wouldn't be back until nightfall and there wasn't any vending machines nearby that worked!"

"_Where are you?"_

Adrian maneuvered his mirror outside to a known landmark. She sighed.

"_I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Stay put!"_ she said firmly.

Bruce looked at him curiously.

"What sort of phone is that?"

"It's actually an enchanted mirror."

"So you're what...a witch?"

"Magically-inclined, and witches are female," said Adrian.

"So magic exists," said Bruce, still unsure if he should believe that, evidence to the contrary.

"So does an entire series of societies based around it. Pretty sure there's one in Brazil, though as long as I don't got exposing it willy-nilly they don't give a damn about me."

"I can't believe magic is real. Then again it might explain a few things..."

Like how the hell he had managed to survive that much gamma radiation or where the Other Guy had come from.

"Haven't you ever done something that's impossible to explain? Like a cookie from the jar appearing in your hand or maybe getting out of danger with no reason why?"

Bruce thought back. There was one time he felt like he had been squeezed into a too tight suit and had appeared someplace he recognized as safe, but he had always dismissed it. Or when had lost his keys only to find them in his pocket when he had checked ten times and they weren't they before.

He heard someone approach.

"Andy?"

"MOM!"

Adrian hugged his mother, who looked nothing like him. She held him at arm's length and he hurriedly explained what happened. She sighed in irritation.

Adrian had the weirdest luck.

She looked at Bruce, and to his surprise she didn't recognize him on sight.

"Thank you for helping him escape those idiots. I thought I had been careful enough, but apparently not if they knew me," she said.

"Actually he helped me more than I helped him. I just provided a spot to hide," said Bruce honestly.

"Still, this means we won't be able to stay in that hotel for a while."

"What sort of job do you have Mrs..."

"It's Miss, and I'm a known assassin," she said bluntly. Bruce blinked twice, assuming she was joking. From the deadpan stare Andy gave him, he realized she wasn't.

"So that's why they were so eager to catch you," said Bruce in realization.

"Mom's got enemies. It's better to pretend we don't know each other until after her assignment is over with...they're always looking for a single woman alone, not a mother with a child with her."

"I've more or less kept Andy a secret from everyone."

"I can understand that," said Bruce.

Natasha spoke lowly with Bruce in private, mostly to assure herself that he wasn't a pedophile. Her son was safer with this scientist than he was at that hotel, and he could handle himself in dangerous areas almost as well as she could.

Better he was in the middle of the jungle than anywhere near those thugs that broke into his room.

* * *

Bruce stayed in the hovel with Adrian, talking physics with the eleven-year-old who was able to keep up with him to his open surprise and delight. Kara had come in from hunting and gave Adrian a squawking chastisement for leaving her to hunt before settling on his shoulder, her customary spot.

To Bruce's own shock, he had magic in him. Enough to use a wand and cast a few spells at any rate. He would probably never get past some of the basics, but he didn't mind considering the advantage he had thanks to the Other Guy and the fact he was a scientist at heart.

Adrian gave him the location of the known areas that sold magical goods (like wands and books) that he knew of. Bruce would make a point to go there once this mess was over...he certainly couldn't stick around once Andy left.

"So...you're mother is a known assassin."

"Ever heard of the Black Widow?"

Bruce's eyes widened comically, for Adrian at least.

"_That_ was the Black Widow? I thought she was a myth!" he said in shock.

Bruce lived on the slums. He heard rumors of a woman known as Black Widow who could kill for a price, though in recent years she seemed to have calmed down somewhat.

At least now he had a reason why she had suddenly started taking easier missions. She had adopted a kid!

Bruce and Adrian take shifts watching for mafia thugs. With Natasha out on assignment he was safer around Bruce than in town.

Fortunately Kara seemed to know which plants were safe for human consumption. And Adrian quickly acquired a taste for roasted piranha to the amusement of Bruce...even if it took several of the deadly fish to actually be a decent meal.

Though how he caught fish with razor sharp teeth without being maimed or eaten alive, Bruce honestly had no idea.

Adrian spent a week with Bruce, though it was easily one of the better ones the poor scientist had since the Other Guy had been created.

Adrian paused when his laptop had a sudden news bulletin about the destruction of a hospital in São Paulo. Not too far from where his mother had gone to kill someone.

_'She didn't...'_ he thought with worry.

Several hours later, Natasha reappeared looking rather harried.

"We need to leave, now," she said.

"...Can we drop Bruce off at the first magical alley we find?" he asked.

Natasha eyed up the scientist. Adrian had told her that he was a very low-level magical, enough for a few spells at any rate. And he had watched her son for her while she had done her job.

She supposed she owed the man that much.

They dropped Bruce off at one of the larger magical alleys in Brazil with a small bag of galleons (enough to afford a wand at least) before they left for another country, this one infinitely colder than South America.

* * *

Adrian was chatting with Charles Xavier about the differences between the European's treatment of werewolves and how the world over treated mutants when he felt someone try to get into the room. He reached for what appeared to be a cheap Pez dispenser in the shape of a black spider. Etched into the abdomen was an hourglass shape with a pair of squiggles that symbolized paralysis.

Adrian was immune to the weaker and less lethal form of the Widow's Kiss, and most poisons. He might get the runs or have his tongue turn a funny color for a while, but he wouldn't die from them. It had been his mother's idea for him to build up a tolerance as a safety measure...one she had done years ago.

Hearing one of the outside steps creak and the wards go off, Adrian prepared for a fight.

Someone broke into the house, and he unleashed his poison into the room.

The results were instant...several people went down as the poison knocked them out from inhaling it, and he started packing.

His mother's standard reaction to an intruder: pack the necessary things and meet at the agreed point. He sent a quick goodbye to his chat buddy, closed the laptop and ran outside the door. Verde had curled inside his loose shirt seconds before the intruder came in.

Adrian fought like a rabid dog when someone grabbed him from behind before he was knocked out. He woke up on a ship of some sort in an interrogation room. There were three adults, all of whom were shooting cautious looks at Kara and Verde. Clearly they had made quite the impression.

Suddenly he saw a familiar face outside the window who made a quick series of hand signs he was intimately familiar with.

"Mom!"


	3. Chapter 3

_A few hours previous, with Natasha..._

She was having a rather crappy day. First they had trouble getting into Russia because the Ministry was on the lookout for her, then she was forced to book a hotel with cameras, and finally an agent from the known UN organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. had shown up, helped deal with the idiots sent to kill her, and ended up recruiting her in the process.

She was tired of running, and this had been too close for her tastes.

"Where are you going?" asked Hawkeye, the man who had helped her.

"I have someone I need to pick up. I'm not leaving this city without them," she said simply.

"It's too dangerous for you to be outside. Where is this person?"

She gave him both the coordinates, hoping that he wouldn't need to use the back-up site.

She wasn't that lucky. Adrian had to use one of his Widow's Kiss tablets to deal with mafia thugs who had come into the room, and had made a quick escape with his snake and bird. Hawkeye was giving her son odd looks, mostly because of the black eye he was now sporting. She stayed close to her son, if only to protect him from the agents on board.

"So...who's the kid?"

"His name is Andy. He's... someone I can rely on no matter what," she said simply.

"Fights like a devil," said Hawkeye, giving the kid a look. She wondered if he recognized her moves or not. Probably not, since it had been dark.

* * *

Natasha was interrogated, given her options, and agreed to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. For now. She went to where they were holding Adrian, and the second he saw her he blew the people in the room out of the water in shock.

"Mom!" he cried racing outside to hug her in relief. Verde slithered on his pants and rested around his neck while Kara took her spot on his shoulder.

Hawkeye, no Clint, choked in disbelief.

"Mom?" he repeated in shock.

Adrian asked her what was going on in Russian, a language they were unlikely to understand.

"_Mom, what the hell happened?"_

"_I had a too close call, and they didn't give me a lot of options. I'll be working with these people for a while. I won't let anyone take you."_

Adrian hugged her tighter.

"Who the hell is this?" asked Fury in actual confusion.

Then again, Natasha was very thorough when she protected her son from her alter ego. No one, no one knew she had a son.

"My son," she said simply.

"I wasn't aware you had one," said Fury calculating.

"Mom's good. I don't help on her jobs and she always makes sure I'm able to handle anything that tracks me down. The last idiot who figured out I was close to her got hung by his balls and his throat cut open," said Adrian simply.

"Does this kid have a name?" asked Clint, eyes twitching.

"Adrian. Though when we're in public he goes by Andy."

* * *

Adrian was the talk of the base. Everyone was in shock that the Black Widow, infamous super spy and assassin, had a son who took after her. The fact that she had legally adopted him under one of her many assumed named was a moot point. He was her son in every way that anyone cared.

Clint, however, was giving Adrian an evil eye because of the black eye he had given him.

That vanished the first time Adrian pulled a prank on the agents in the base...and managed to get his mother's new handler covered in maple syrup. (His name was Phil.)

An unholy alliance was born.

* * *

Adrian couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"What do you mean I have to go to school?" he whined. Yes whined.

He was a thirteen year old and he hated being around normal people for too long. It had been nearly two years since his mother was recruited by Clint (who was officially _the_ most awesome person in Adrian's mind) and he had become a common sight among S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and was considered the go-to hacker if they needed information in a hurry.

"I'm going to be on a three month watchman's duty with some rookie. I will not stand for you to be stuck in one of the bases the entire time. Did you know Phil's threatened to have you scrub the entire helicarrier if he gets caught by your pranks again?" said Natasha firmly.

Adrian winced.

"But school is so damn boring! Besides, everyone else is slower than me and you know I hate doing monotonous assignments that don't mean anything!" complained Adrian.

Natasha counted to ten. Her sudden calm sparked an idea.

"Are you still in contact with Xavier?"

"The Prof? Yeah, why?"

"Didn't you mention he ran a school for gifted children?" she said.

Adrian perked up. Xavier, when he learned of his actual age, had given him an invitation to his school if he had ever been in the area. And there was a headquarters in the same town, under an assumed name of course.

"So are we agreed? You'll go to school with kids your own age while I'm on assignment and I'll come to see you once it's over?"

Adrian thought long and hard about it. He always worried when she went on assignment. Then he looked at Kara.

"I'll do it. But only if you take Kara with you," he said finally.

Kara squawked in disapproval. She didn't want to leave Adrian.

"Please Kara? I would feel better if mom had a bird as smart as you as her back-up," he pleaded.

Natasha and Adrian knew Kara wasn't an ordinary bird, but a mortal shell for something else.

Kara cawed, before she started to make a racket. Natasha and Adrian were both surprised when a second crow flew in, a little smaller than Kara was. It looked at Kara, who spoke in the odd language of the crows and pointed at Natasha with a single wing. The newer crow looked at Natasha before sitting calmly on her shoulder. Adrian noted it was the opposite one Kara usually perched on.

"So does this new crow have a name?" asked Natasha to Kara.

Kara turned her head twice which they knew meant 'no'. She tended to bob when she meant 'yes'.

"How about Su?" asked Adrian.

"Kara and Su?" said Natasha in amusement.

"The new bird's a girl too," said Adrian defensively.

"Is it just Su or is her name Karasu as well?"

"Just Su. Kara doesn't answer to her full name anymore remember?"

"So are you willing to go to school now that I have an 'escort'?" asked Natasha.

Adrian nodded. He felt better knowing she had something to watch her back.

* * *

"Welcome Andy. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person," said Xavier. Andy shook his hand firmly. And ignored the fact his chat buddy was in a wheelchair.

"Can I leave him in your care until I return to the States?" she asked the man seriously.

"Andy is perfectly fine here. I have it on good authority that Clint Barton was recently put in the base twenty miles down the road just in case," said Xavier.

Andy had been surprised to learn that Xavier knew Fury, and that some of his students had helped out with S.H.I.E.L.D. before. Explained the base nearby though.

Natasha nodded and left Adrian in the capable hands of Charles Xavier.

* * *

Adrian was given a room with another boy, Bobby, who he suspected was an ice elemental or something.

He went to explore the mansion and accidentally found himself in the infirmary.

"Can I help you?"

"Sorry, was exploring the place a bit. I'm new here," said Adrian.

The man smiled.

"Adrian Romanov I presume?"

"Andy in public," he said automatically.

"Hank McCoy, resident doctor," he said holding out his hand.

"Like Star Trek?"

Hank gave a long suffering sigh.

"My expertise is quite different from the character," he said tiredly.

Adrian was about to say something when Verde hissed.

He blinked.

"What do you mean you smell a large amount of fur?" he asked the snake.

"You can understand snakes?" asked McCoy, mildly surprised.

"Parselmouth. It's an offshoot of a specific branch of green magic, specifically the beast's tongue. I have some limited ability towards wolf-tongue and I can understand basic crow, but for some reason snake tongue comes easier than the others...probably because I always have Verde on or around me," said Adrian.

"Verde?"

Adrian lifted his snake in explanation.

"Here comes Kara," said Adrian.

The crow landed on his shoulder, satisfied by the bugs in the nearby garden.

"I get the feeling you'll fit in just fine Andy," said Hank.

"So...what did Verde mean by fur?" he asked.

Hank removed his image inducer, to see how the boy would react.

"That's it?" he said.

"You're not afraid of me? I am clearly a known mutant," he said calmly.

"Dude, you're just a huge blue cat thing. Fury scares me a hell of a lot more after he finds out I've pranked his computers again."

Hank chuckled.

* * *

Adrian found himself a novelty in Xavier's school. Mostly because he wasn't a mutant and yet the professor was letting him in the same classes as kids who had obvious mutations like one girl who had a cat's tail.

Once it became clear within the first few days that 'Andy' didn't give a damn about whether they were mutants or not, he found himself surrounded by others his own age who wanted to talk to him. Apparently the idea of talking to a kid who A) wasn't a mutant in any way shape or form and B) wasn't freaking out over their powers was enough to give him a rather large fan base.

Finding a regular human who wasn't afraid or wanted to exploit them or their powers was something they desperately wanted to learn about.

Of course he did get quite a few odd looks when, after he was tired of being gawked at, he informed his roommate that his mother was a known super spy and international assassin.

When Bobby tried to call him on it, only to learn he wasn't actually _joking, _well...oddly enough his popularity only grew.

As a consequence, Adrian spent large amounts of his time with Hank McCoy learning how to be a better medic. He had been Natasha's main source of first aid for the areas she couldn't reach easily or would have trouble tying off properly. He had become tolerably good at it, and that only increased thanks to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new recruit orientation.

He had spent some of his time in the various bases learning simple medical techniques that some of the new recruits went through.

He was a qualified battlefield medic and he had been certified...to a point. It was hard to believe a twelve year old was a qualified nurse.

Hank got along with him fine once he understood that Andy was only there because he couldn't stand normal schools and because he was a friend of Charles to a point.

For some reason Adrian could only talk to people three times his age because of his natural genius-level IQ. Hank was just glad he wasn't condescending about it unless he was tired and in a bad mood.

He had been shocked the first time Andy's alter ego, a snarky and rather cruel side that he called 'Loki' for some reason, had shown up. Not nearly as shocked as Scott was when he had told Andy to butt out because he had thought the boy wasn't able to handle Jean's broken arm. The fact he had been the only one in the infirmary able to treat it and Scott had woken him up from a much needed nap hadn't helped. (Hank had been dealing with someone else at the time.)

* * *

Charles Xavier was having a staring contest with a crow.

Adrian had been curious who Kara was connected to, and since Charles was rightly concerned for his students, he had offered to see if he could find out.

Which lead to a now fifteen-minute staring contest.

Suddenly Charles blinked.

"That was most disconcerting," he said, trying to water his eyes.

"So?"

"It seems that Kara is one of Hel's messengers. And by that I mean Loki's daughter, not the area sinners go in certain religions," he said.

"Hel? Why would she be interested in me?" asked Adrian.

"She said that you were one of Loki's special chosen, and that he had asked her to watch over you for him as a favor. However you've apparently gained her favor all on your own by treating her familiar as one of your own," explained Charles.

"So...why hasn't she said anything before now?"

"Something about Odin having issues with a certain experiment Loki keeps trying to complete and destroying the test subjects before they have a chance to grow up. She couldn't say more than that without drawing someone's attention to you."

"Darn. I was hoping she could explain a few things."

"She said that if you were lucky you might be able to catch Loki on the rare trips he makes to Midgard to ask him what was going on," offered Charles.

* * *

"_So how's school?"_ asked Natasha.

"It's great. Hank's teaching me to be a qualified doctor and he said that if it wasn't for my age I might be able to do stuff like surgery."

"_That's great..."_

"By the way, I finally found out who Kara and possibly Su belong to," said Adrian.

"_Who?"_

"Hel, Loki's daughter in Norse mythology. Apparently he's taken an interest in me for some reason and the crows are her messengers."

Natasha blinked.

"_Loki's real?"_ she said.

"So is Asgard, but they're not really gods, just really long lived."

"_Adrian, it looks like they might extend my mission by another month. Think you can handle that long?"_ she asked.

"I'm fine mom," said Adrian.

"_Love you Andy,"_ she said.

"Love you too mom," said Adrian before she hung up.


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, since there has been some confusion on this front... Adrian is not a Potter. Loki's "experiment" as Hel put it, is actually one rather common on Earth called the 'Surrogate' system in which a woman carries the child of another in exchange for services or payment. Lily Potter agreed to carry Adrian to term in exchange for Loki healing her and James so they could conceive their own child naturally. Adrian is no more a Potter than he is related to Malfoy, outside of the fact James adopted him legally as his son to protect him.**

**Lily was three months pregnant when Voldemort attacked, and it will be mentioned later when Adrian reaches Asgard.  
**

**As for magic, Adrian has seen what over-reliance of the art can do to a person when he visited England, so he views it as nothing more than a tool, much like his ability to hack into any computer he gets his hands on. Once he gets Agent status, he'll be showing more of his ability to use magic. I hope that clears a few things up.**

* * *

As it turned out, Adrian _did_ catch up to Loki while his roommate Bobby was in the hospital wing dealing with a stomach problem from some bad Thai food.

"You might as well open your eyes, you aren't fooling me," chuckled a voice.

Adrian opened his eyes to find...an older version of himself in a very odd looking set of armor.

"Are you Loki?"

"I am. Hello Hadrian...or should I call you Adrian?"

"Hadrian?" he asked.

"Your 'birth' parents named you Hadrian. Your mother misread your first name and dropped the 'H' when she found you all those years ago."

"So...what did Hel mean about an experiment?" asked Adrian.

Loki sighed. He had hoped the boy wouldn't ask, but Adrian _was_ a genius and a naturally curious mind.

"Asgardians, particularly the Aesir, are long lived. And unfortunately for me they are mostly a warrior race who happen to dabble in science when it suits them. As a scholar and a mage, I've mostly been ignored or politely ostracized by most of Asgard. My 'experiment' as Hel had so tactfully called it when she first heard of my plan, was my attempt to gain someone I could at least talk to civilly before I lost my mind out of boredom. However Odin learned of the first attempt too early and killed the woman who had offered to help me out for a favor."

"Why?"

"He said that the last children I had were monsters and he didn't want a repeat."

"Fenrir, Jörmungandr, and Hel," said Adrian.

"Among others," nodded Loki, "Anyway I attempted it a second time, this time not telling anyone and when Odin found out he had been furious. The woman died under childbirth and the infant was a stillborn, but the damage was done. Odin made me swear to stop it, but I had no intention of obeying his order."

Loki looked very angry at this.

"The third attempt was a failure solely because Heimdall had been watching me on Odin's orders and they stopped the third try by arranging a discreet accident."

"So what attempt am I?"

"My last and hopefully final attempt...and the only infant who survived long enough to be born and grow up without interference. Of course this time I had learned from my mistakes and made a point to have you born on a planet Odin couldn't supervise so easily and covered my tracks very well. Midgard was abandoned for centuries...Odin had no interest in it and the humans are reasonably civilized enough for the infant to be cultivated safely. I was naturally surprised that a series of magical communities had sprung up during the centuries we had been gone."

"So...you knew my birth parents?"

"James and Lily Potter. They were naturally suspicious of my motives, they were in a civil war after all. However when I learned of their inability to conceive and they learned of my true reason for being there they were happy to help. James in particular seemed thrilled to help out Loki...he was a natural prankster and was a follower of mine. They had agreed to tell you of your true origins once you were old enough in return for your safety should the war turn ill. Then everything nearly fell apart."

"They were killed."

"Murdered by a madman with delusions of blood purity. When Hel found where the half-giant had taken you under the old one's orders, I was horrified. The neighborhood was so streamlined _normal_ that I feared it would crush your natural ability and spirit before I could help you. So, I decided to tell my mother what had happened and she agreed to assist me in hiding and relocating you to a better place."

Loki took a deep breath.

"My mother Frigga is many things, but a bad mother she is not. She alone had been the only one to encourage my experiments, mostly because she felt having a student or a child I could teach my unique brand of magic to might soothe the strained relationship I have with Odin and Thor. She gave me a charm which would compel the first person to be drawn to you to take you in. In this case, your mother Natasha."

"Wait, so my mom was compelled..." said Adrian upset.

"Only until her natural maternal instincts kicked in fully, by that time the charm wore off. It's something that was developed centuries ago to help ease orphans into less than charitable homes and is entirely benign in nature. Her love for you is entirely genuine, I can assure you."

Adrian looked relieved about that.

"In any event, I was thrilled when Hel told me how well you had taken to your new mother and how she openly encouraged you to expand your mind. When the first signs of magic appeared, I knew that my experiment had more or less succeeded finally. The only issue was contact you before Odin learned you existed and what you were."

"What I am?"

"You may be James and Lily's son by blood and Natasha's by love, but you are _my_ son in spirit. The help I gave the Potters was a decent sized chunk of my magic which allowed the embryo to stay alive the entire gestation period... Lily had a childhood illness which made her far too easy to miscarry and all their previous children had died far too soon. If Odin found out I had brought another child into life through my experiment, he might have tried to kill you prematurely as a precaution. Now that you are not only a teenager, but quite clearly not evil or a monster as he feared, he might have no choice but to accept your existence. But...do me a favor and don't grab his attention just yet?" said Loki hopefully.

"I wouldn't even know _how_ to grab his attention," said Adrian dryly.

"Shouting at Heimdall usually works," said Loki sullenly.

"So how are you here if I'm supposed to avoid his notice?"

"I'm not actually _here _physically. This is an astral projection in your mind. Something like what your friend Xavier can do in coma patients."

"So I look like I'm talking to thin air?" he asked.

"Actually I knocked you out. This is more along the lines of dream speaking, something Odin would have to ask Frigga to track. He's a good warrior, but magic is tricky for him. My mother is much better at it and he finds it easier to ask her to do anything when it comes to the subject."

Loki tilted his head.

"Speaking of my mother..."

A woman appeared. She was very regal.

"Hello Adrian. I am Queen Frigga."

"I suppose I have you to thank for the fact mom took me in when she did," he said.

"I was happy to help my son when I found out why he was interfering with mortal affairs, despite Odin's orders. Besides," said Frigga, a mischievous glint in her eyes, "Loki isn't the only one who desires someone to teach and share magic with."

"Why don't more Aesir learn magic then?"

Loki looked irritated.

"Magic...is considered a woman's talent," he said sourly.

"I'm afraid he's correct. On Asgard magic is considered woman's work, despite the fact that Loki is an effective warrior without using the same tricks as Thor."

"You're kidding. Magic is just as exhausting as using your muscles! How can they be so sexist?" asked Adrian incredulous.

Loki chuckled. There was a reason why he liked Adrian.

"Asgardians are so long lived and naturally stronger than mortals...so after a point they believed themselves gods. I'm afraid when you live several centuries, easily thousands of years before dying, stagnation happens rather slowly. At this point there is very little in way of development," said Frigga. Which was disappointing, actually.

"So...when do we start magic training?" asked Adrian.

Loki and Frigga smiled. That was the attitude they were looking for in a student.

* * *

Natasha came to pick up her son a month later and gave him a choice. He could spend his off time between the limited missions she let S.H.I.E.L.D. use him for in Xavier's school for mutants, or he could continue to hang around the bases until he grew bored.

Adrian chose the school. He had told Xavier about his dream lessons, and since he was a psychic the man believed him. Loki and Frigga could share their magical lessons with Adrian without him being dragged in for a psyche evaluation and deal with Fury because he found out who his actual father was.

Clint had always been more of an older brother than anything else.

When told of his real origins, Natasha had been skeptical, but when he mentioned the compulsion she believed him. It certainly explained why a heartless assassin like she had been had taken in an orphan so quickly.

If he wanted to learn magic from people who might as well be gods, then that was his business. So long as this Loki didn't try to take her son from her, she could care less.

* * *

_Three years later..._

"So they finally found the Captain?" asked Adrian, on his monthly check in with Coulson. He had been forced onto the same handler as his mother and Clint because he had pranked Fury one too many times.

Coulson was a _diehard_ fanboy of Captain America. Adrian didn't bother to ask why.

"Frozen in ice, all this time. And get this...he's still alive," said Coulson with glee.

"You gonna ask him to sign your cards?" smirked Adrian.

He had given Coulson the last one as a birthday present. You would have thought Adrian had given him the moon with how happy he was.

Coulson didn't say anything, but the look on his face said it all.

"So how are you going to wake him up?"

"We're going to break it to him gently. Make him think he had been found in his own time," said Phil.

"Or you could have someone he wouldn't feel threatened by break it to him and get it over with."

"I think the director would rather break it to him easy."

"So what program are you going to have on the radio?"

Phil brought up a recording of a very impressive game back during the war. However Adrian had read up on Steve Rogers and he caught something Phil and Fury had missed.

"You might want to try a game that he wouldn't have likely seen in person."

"Excuse me?" said Fury.

"This...is the date of the experiment, and according to the records Rogers was in the group for at least two months. This is the date of the game itself. See the problem?"

"No, I don't," said Fury.

"Rogers is an all-American hero, right? Baseball is considered America's game, next to American football. And the price of admission was rather little back then, so what are the odds that he _wasn't_ there to see that game in person?"

Even Fury had to admit it was entirely possible Rogers had been there that day. It wasn't like they kept records of who had been there.

"Why not just send me in as a doctor to break it too him gently. No fuss, no muss, just facts?" suggested Adrian.

"He might be less likely to think a sixteen-year-old is a threat sir," said Phil.

"There's also the fact that Russia wasn't exactly one of the people who followed HYDRA's banner at the time," said Adrian. He had a distinct Russian accent most of the time.

"He has a good point. None of our files mentioned any Russians in HYDRA, let alone against Rogers or his team," said Phil.

"Fine. Crow, you get to be the one to break it to Rogers about the fact that the war is over. But if anything happens..."

"I've been learning wandless magic recently. I think I can handle a simple levitation charm to keep him from making a mess," said Adrian dryly.

* * *

Steve Rogers was half asleep when he realized he was in New York. A teen came in wearing a doctor's outfit.

"Aren't you a little young to be a doctor?" he asked.

"Nope. Things have changed since you were gone, Captain," said Adrian with a thick Russian accent.

Rogers went on the defensive at the accent.

"My name is Dr. Andy Romanic. You've been asleep in the ice for some time Captain Rogers. And no, America wasn't taken over by the Russians," said Adrian dryly.

"Where am I?"

"New York. Sixty years after you went into the ice," said Adrian bluntly.

"Sixty..."

"America won the war against Hitler and the Nazis, but at a terrible cost of life. The ice kept your body in a state of suspended animation, and the serum kept you alive long enough for us to find and bring you back."

"If America won, then why is a Russian here?" asked Steve. That was what confused him the most.

"It was agreed to send me in because I was raised by a Russian and because of my age. You were less likely to find a teenager a threat, particularly since HYDRA never recruited the Russians despite their best efforts at the time," said Adrian flatly. He nodded towards the radio, "And it was either send me in or let you wake up to a recording of a baseball game that happened three months before you were brought in by Dr. Erskin."

"What year is it?"

Adrian told him the actual date. Rogers seemed to take it pretty badly.

"We did manage to get a message from one Peggy Carter before her death. She always believed that we would find you, but when she realized that she might not live to see it she left you something," said Adrian, handing over a letter. It was unopened.

"You didn't read it?" he asked.

"Her descendants handed it over once we confirmed that we had in fact found you. It was in her will that it be handed over once you were awake enough to read it," said Adrian.

"So who are you with?"

"S.H.I.E.L.D., though technically I'm a support member because of my age and the fact I'm still not fully trained. I mostly just help out with the clean up and insuring the agents don't die."

He tossed Rogers a book.

"That is a compilation of major events since you were asleep. When you're ready, read that and you'll be more or less up to speed with the rest of us," said Adrian, leaving the room.


	5. Chapter 5

"CROW!" shouted Phil.

Adrian snickered evilly as his 'handler' felt the effects of his favorite prank, a maple syrup bomb and fake feathers. He had been given his own Agent call sign by Fury after he passed the qualifiers for the status, as well as the field exam by beating his own mother in a straight up fight. He had recently turned sixteen, and found his first animal form. It was, unsurprising to everyone, a crow. A large crow at that.

So he was now Agent Crow.

"Nice. The syrup and feather trap?" snickered Clint. He held up a hand and Adrian high-fived him. He loved hanging around Clint, who acted more like a big brother than anything.

"Always," said Adrian.

"I heard that Fury's gonna send you to deal with Stark if they find him," said Clint. Recently Tony Stark had gone missing after a weapon's demonstration in Afghanistan. After dealing with Steve Rogers and the fact that his transition went smoothly thanks to Adrian's presence, he was now the one Fury picked to try and recruit others. So far they had five new young recruits who could hack into S.H.I.E.L.D., all by Adrian.

When they weren't playing games online that is.

"Because he happens to be one of my chat buddies?" asked Adrian.

Tony absolutely _loved_ chatting with Adrian, despite the fact that they had never met once. Adrian never treated him like a billionaire he had to kiss up to.

"Because of your age and the fact he won't suspect you trying to recruit."

Fury sent Adrian into schools where known super-hackers attended to buddy up with them, or at least give them a better target to go after. Natasha didn't like it, but Adrian was good at recruiting people his age.

Despite the fact he had at least three doctorates and a fourth soon on the way. Adrian didn't spend his time playing games or chasing girls, he spent that time learning and doing tests online.

Dr. Andy Romanic was well known among scientists, even if no one had ever seen him yet. The only one who had was Xavier and McCoy.

This new doctorate was under his adopted name, Adrian Romanov, so he could at least be able to claim he was a doctor in science despite the fact that two of his degrees were in medicine.

It had been a total pain to get those, but well worth the galleons spent to use magical courses that utilized time turners. It cut the time he spent taking medical exams and lessons to a single year.

* * *

A month into Tony's disappearance, Adrian came across an unusual thing on the chat board.

"What the hell? Who is Blade?" he muttered.

A few quick inquiries among the more tech-savvie magicals revealed that this 'Blade' character was in fact a half-breed vampire who had a serious grudge against vampires. His origins were the same as Adrian's, though from what he could tell Blade never went after the innocent.

Looking into Blade, Adrian found that S.H.I.E.L.D. had an open interest in the half-vampire as well. While they couldn't prove the things he killed were vampires (they turned to ash when Blade was done with them) they could prove that he had been instrumental in taking out several criminal organizations who dealt with trafficking humans. Across international lines.

And that was something S.H.I.E.L.D. took an interest in. Unfortunately trying to recruit him was something of a difficult task, since Blade was naturally paranoid.

"Crow, what have I said about hacking our files?" said Coulson from behind.

"Just looking into a known hunter," said Adrian.

Coulson looked at the file.

"Blade. Figures he would interest someone who loves swords," said Phil.

Adrian didn't use normal weapons, despite having a perfect score when it came to his aim. He had a pair of silver and iron tonpa, and a set of battle fans. They drew less attention than a gun, and most people believed him to be some sort of cop because he wore his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge openly with a small charm to disguise it as something that looked official but couldn't be identified unless he let them.

He did the same for other active Agents, including Phil, because it made carrying guns openly a hell of a lot easier on them.

Phil looked at what little S.H.I.E.L.D. had on Blade, the known vampire killer. From what he could tell the man was a good person, but he had a rough exterior because he had to. He had very few, if any, allies. Suddenly he squinted at Adrian.

"You aren't seriously considering..."

"Why not? Blade could be our go-to for vampires and he might appreciate the help in finding the bastards. From what little we _do_ know about them they tend to be violent criminals that only stay off our prospective radar because of what they are."

Adrian made a face. Thanks to the magical governments it was a total pain in the ass trying to deal with certain supernatural threats. Because of the fact that vampires were considered magical, and therefor 'protected' by the various secrecy acts, it was hard to pin things on them in the normal half of the world.

There was an entire S.H.I.E.L.D. division called T.A.R.D.I.S. who dealt with magical threats. And they were so vastly understaffed it wasn't even funny.

Adrian suspected the one who came up with that acronym was a total _Doctor Who_ fan. Who else would come up with a division with a name specifically meant to match those letters?

(T.A.R.D.I.S. stood for _Terrestrial Anomaly Reactive Divisions In SHIELD_, and Adrian later learned that yes, it had been named by a sci-fi nerd who insisted his name was John Smith. Adrian was more of a fan of _Once Upon A Time_, a relatively new show which he was absolutely addicted to.)

"You'll have to run it by Fury first," said Phil.

"Run what by me? And what have we said about hacking into secure files Crow?" said Fury.

"What? I do it when I get bored anyway."

"Who are you wanting to recruit?" asked Fury.

"Blade."

"The vampire killer?" said Fury blinking. Out of all his agents, Crow had a decent chance to pull it off. He had an unusually high charisma rating.

"Yeah."

"It will be difficult to find him. He stays off the radar for good reason," said Fury.

"So we wait for the vampires to get him arrested and swoop in."

* * *

Which happened a month later. Blade was caught on video killing a familiar, the term used by vampires and hunters for human servants, and arrested.

Adrian found his rescue team and surprised them all by offering a legal way of retrieving the half-vampire.

"Can I help you?" demanded the Agent.

"Agent Romanov, from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division," said Adrian.

"Quite a mouthful for an agency that doesn't exist," sneered the agent.

"Want to test that theory out? I assure you, S.H.I.E.L.D. is very real and very powerful. And we have an interest in that man inside," said Adrian thinly.

The FBI agent sneered at him some more before he called the number on the card Adrian handed over.

A few minutes later you could see his face go through a myriad of emotions, most of them very unhappy. Adrian waited patiently before the agent returned.

"He's yours," he said angrily.

Fury had called the FBI personally and had Blade cleared. Now all they had to do was remove him from the building and give these hunters the help they so desperately needed to deal with the vampire problem.

The vampires had a habit of doing things illegally, much like mortal criminals did. The fact that they preyed on humans only made it a bigger priority to deal with them. Human organizations who had similar functions didn't do nearly as much damage as these predators. And thanks to the agreement to leave the vampires alone because they also crossed into magical territory, it made getting rid of them difficult.

So the chance to give Blade some much needed allies and back-up to deal with a growing problem was too good to resist for Fury. And he could claim his hands were free because Adrian was going to be Blade's handler, and he worked through T.A.R.D.I.S. as a liaison between the two divisions.

Well that and it was payback for Adrian hacking the servers_ again._

Blade was still in the throws of his thirst, so he was more or less out of it. It made getting him into the car easier though.

Hannibal put the serum into his mouth and once he went through the usual symptoms his head became a lot clearer.

"Who are you people?"

"My name is Agent Crow of T.A.R.D.I.S., the magical offshoot of S.H.I.E.L.D., and these people are friends of your partner Whistler. You're lucky I was able to convince my boss to let me try to recruit you...the vampires have that particular FBI branch under their control."

"I don't do well with superiors," said Blade.

Adrian snorted.

"And you think I do? I'm not here to turn you into one of our Agents. I'm here to offer you the chance to have back-up and support you need to deal with vampires without having to worry about the cops catching you. At best you'll be labeled a consultant under my division that we send tips on the locations of vampire nests so you can do your thing," said Adrian flatly, "S.H.I.E.L.D. has been monitoring you Blade, and while you are an excellent fighter your methods and usual way of operating are too unpredictable for our tastes. So labeling you a consultant and giving you help is much easier for all of us. Fury isn't exactly pleased with these vampire creatures, but his hands are tied."

"And them?" asked Blade.

"We're a rogue band of hunters," said Hannibal.

"Whistler's illegitimate daughter," said the girl.

"Hmph. Sounds too good to be true," said Blade.

Adrian rolled his eyes.

"Look, you can either accept the offer and kill even more vampires, or you can go your own way. I'll not waste energy trying to convince you one way or another. However, you should consider this. If you do accept, then we might be able to help make a better serum with a less painful backlash," said Adrian.

"People have tried," said Blade.

"One thing I've never understood though. I've read your file. You're so determined to prove you're not like the vampires that you take a serum that has a painful backlash. Have you never considered donated or cloned blood?" asked Adrian.

Blade's eyes flashed dangerously.

"I don't drink blood," he said tightly.

"Well magical vampires have a deal with most of the magical governments to drink only donated blood. And with potions that can restore what they give, it's a perfectly working system. And the people get paid fairly for their donations," said Adrian.

"Magical vampires?" repeated Hannibal.

"Unlike the idiots you hunt, they keep to themselves and prefer to drink donated blood. They think of the breed you hunt as ignorant commoners who stir up too much trouble. Easier to pay for donations than deal with hunters on their ass," said Adrian, then added "And they aren't vulnerable to silver like the breed you lot go after. Sun gives them a really bad rash."

Blade had seen a few of those. Aside from a few bumps they didn't piss him off as much as the ones he was used to. In fact they were more likely to leave the area if they learned he was around and sniffing about, or give him the locations of other vampires. He could tolerate them...barely.

"What's in it for you if I agreed?" asked Blade.

"We're more or less using you and the others to deal with a growing nuisance, and hopefully have some help when things get out of hand in magical matters. Aside from that, we'll leave you alone to your own devices. We'll give you a number and a few ways to get a hold of us in case of an emergency, but that's about it. Plus we'll look into making a serum that doesn't cause you nearly as much pain as the one you use."

Adrian already had an idea about that, but he would need a sample of Blade's blood first. One of his contacts had the right idea with the anti-coagulating trick, but Blade would need something more considering he was half-human and had been born like this.

After dropping off Blade, it took him a few weeks before he got an answer.

"_I'm in._"

Fury was surprised Adrian convinced Blade to accept his offer of help...and promptly made plans to see if he would consent to helping in the Avengers Initiative.

Adrian spent his spare time trying to find a safer serum for Blade since he didn't really enjoy drinking blood, even if it was donated and paid for. He could tolerate the pill form that had been made for newly turned magical vampires (and were the perfected form of the joke treat known as blood pops which were an early prototype), but drinking blood was something he preferred to do only as a last resort.

As for the hunters...well they were happy to have some desperately needed help. Whistler's daughter and Hannibal had been initiated into Adrian's division and were under his supervision. However they mostly stuck around Blade as his partners.

While he had Blade to distract him for a while, he kept an ear out for Tony's return. And he didn't have to wait too long.

* * *

Three months after his capture, Tony made a whirlwind reappearance. Adrian decided that now was the best time to finally meet Stark.

Tony was downstairs when JARVIS spoke up.

"_Sir, there's someone outside who has hacked my servers. He claims that you know of him,"_ said the AI in surprise.

"He got a name?" asked Tony. Very few people could hack JARVIS, and even fewer that he was on speaking terms with.

"_He's sending a message though my mainframe. _'Really Tony? And here I thought you would be interested in actually meeting me since I was in the area.' _His PDA is listed under the name Andy Romanic..."_

"Andy?" said Tony in open surprise, "Andy's outside?"

JARVIS brought up the security cameras. The person outside couldn't be older than seventeen at the most, but that fit with what he knew of Andy. He openly admitted he had recently gotten his driver's license for the first time, and on his shoulder was a large black crow barely visible in the light.

Tony put down his tools and went to meet Andy. This would be interesting.

"Yo."

"So you're Andy. You don't look like a closet shut-in, and you're taller than I thought you would be," said Tony with a quip.

"And you're not as annoying as you act in public," Andy shot back.

Tony nearly jumped out of his skin when a great snake poked it's head out of Andy's shirt and hissed at him.

"Definitely Andy. No one else I chat with has a snake that big slithering around their clothes and not acting out of the ordinary. Come on in!" said Tony cheerfully.

He needed a break from his project anyway, and Andy always had good ideas.


	6. Chapter 6

Pepper Potts was naturally suspicious of Andy...though that had more to do with the fact she nearly sat on Verde one night and had to deal with Tony's laughter at her open shriek when she realized that yes, there was a snake in the house. Seeing the massive snake slither into Andy's shirt and curl around his waist didn't help matters.

Andy had a well trained snake...it helped he could speak to them like it was Russian. And Verde had grown in size since his rescue from the zoo all those years ago... he was easily big enough to crush a human.

At this point Natasha was only slightly disappointed that the boa wasn't poisonous. It would have made Adrian's immunity training a little easier having a handy source of venom on hand.

That was nothing to how she reacted to Kara. Tony had to hold onto the counter from laughing so hard.

He would have helped, but frankly he needed the laugh more than he needed to reassure Pepper that the bird wasn't about to fly into her hair. Besides, it was hilarious.

Once she got over her scare, Pepper waited to see what Andy's personality was like before concluding he was a less annoying, more adult version of Tony.

And that was before she found out that he had a bizarre schedule that involved building up an immunity to every poison he could get his hands on by ingesting small amounts of it when she nearly mistook his glass of water for one of her drinks. Fortunately Kara had scared her off of the glass before she accidentally dosed herself with a rather harmless paralyzing agent.

While Adrian helped Tony find ways out of his military contract, he also looked into whoever had been dealing under the table after Tony learned of his weapons in Guilmira. And that meant finding whoever it was that hired the terrorists to kill him in the first place.

Tony had been too out of it to remember the words of the Ten Rings, but he remembered a camera and that meant either they had been demanding money (not likely or he would have been out sooner than three months), or someone had hired them to capture or kill him.

Andy was a super hacker, better than Tony or JARVIS because he had S.H.I.E.L.D. backing him up and clearance which Tony would set off in a heartbeat.

So when he did finally locate the one who got Tony captured, he decided a roundabout approach would be best. In other words, he had to keep Tony out of the loop.

* * *

"This is Agent Crow. I'll need a quick evac of suspect and rerouting of the bus once I have him out," said Adrian.

"_This is Coulson. Tell us when Stane is down and we'll send in the retrieval team. Be careful Crow. Your mother would have my head if you got hurt,"_ said Phil. Sadly, he wasn't joking. This was Adrian's first act as his mother's son by using the Kiss outside of self-defense.

Only a master assassin and spy could retrieve Stane without drawing too much attention or getting caught. Fortunately Tony had introduced him to the man earlier, which made getting in infinitely easier.

Adrian went into the building and once he was outside of Stane's office palmed the Kiss. Gone was the Pez dispenser, Adrian had a magical variant that was easier to use. If Stane tried anything like the device Stark Industries had made years ago but never got the clear for, then he would need every second he had to knock the man out.

Paralysis didn't cover magic, and if Stane used the device on him then he would have to spike his rather quickly to release the dose. According to records the device in question only worked for ten minutes...the Kiss would knock him out for more than an hour, twice at the dose Adrian was going to use.

Stane saw who entered, smiled jovially in a way that never reached his eyes and offered Adrian a drink. Adrian shook his hand with his right, as the Widow's Kiss was in his left. He kept close watch on Stane's hands and the moment his thumb went to subtly press something, Adrian reacted.

The Widow's Kiss enveloped the room completely, and Stane dropped like a rock once he got a good lungful of it. Adrian's immunity meant he could walk up to the man and check for a pulse...he had never used a double dose before.

Stane was alive. Unconscious and unlikely to wake up until after he was in an interrogation cell, but alive. Adrian checked his hands...there was the device he had been worried about. Stane's little earpiece was the other half...the only way to avoid the short paralytic effect. Adrian had JARVIS open a vent to the outside, having informed the AI beforehand what he planned...he didn't want Tony to learn that Stane had been behind his capture and torture. It might break his heart having a trusted mentor betray him like that.

JARVIS vented out the excess Kiss, and Adrian waited ten minutes before he acted surprised and had the security call an ambulance. They wouldn't find a trace of the Kiss, and JARVIS had control of the security cameras since he entered the room. As far as they knew, Stane had overworked himself until he collapsed.

JARVIS would tell Tony to check the man's computer, since Adrian didn't want his friend to suspect him of planting something on a closed circuit system.

A disguised S.H.I.E.L.D. ambulance pulled up, put Stane on a stretcher, and took him to a secret location. By the time Tony learned who had paid the terrorists to kidnap him, Stane was singing like a canary from the veritaserum they had dosed him with about the groups he had been involved in.

* * *

Natasha caught her son while he was nursing a mild hangover from Tony spiking his drink. She was only mildly amused, considering by American standards Adrian was still four years too young to drink legally.

"I heard about your mission... well done."

Adrian smiled, then grimaced. She handed him a hangover remedy.

"I heard Stark was less than happy to hear that his favorite chat buddy had to leave after Stane was arrested."

Tony had been understanding about the whole 'he was a secret agent' thing, mostly because he had been upfront about the truth when asked.

Tony had been betrayed too many times recently and lying would only make it harder for the man to trust him later. Besides, it wasn't like Tony could hack their files which Adrian had personally protected with magic. And this insured that Stark would at least believe him later.

Well...that and he had promised to try and get Banner into the same general time zone as Tony the next time they spoke through mirror-phone.

"So...what do you plan to do next?" asked Natasha carefully. There had been recent attempts to locate Adrian from England, and she was almost worried that they might find him. Almost.

"I've heard that England has an open season to find me since I turned seventeen. Some bull about me needing to return to claim my inheritance. And I've been meaning to see more of the realms," said Adrian.

Adrian knew he didn't need to _claim_ the Potter accounts. Mostly because he was fully aware he wasn't even a Potter by blood, only adoption. The only reason he was even allowed in the vaults was because James had the goblins add him to the family register without informing his friends that his 'son' was in fact the child of Loki.

Lily had been three months pregnant with their son when Voldemort attacked. Loki had been pissed when he learned of the attack and the fact that her life had been cut short along with the child. After so many failed attempts to have a child to share his magic with, he was rather fond of the little ones to the point he would protect one if he saw a child in danger.

Besides, Adrian was legally the heir of the Romani family through Natasha. He had no need of English gold or the titles that came with it.

"The goblins did mention a marriage contract didn't they?" said Natasha. That had been a bit of a surprise, finding that bit out.

They had no idea who the Weasly family was, nor did they care. This Ginerva Weasly would have to find a new husband to snag.

"Hence why I plan to leave Midgard for a year or so until that contract is rendered void by my absence. They have a year to find me and make me marry that girl before my eighteenth birthday, otherwise it's rendered null and void."

"What does your father think of these plans?" asked Natasha.

She had come to terms with her son's true father years ago. It didn't hurt that Loki had appeared before her in a dream to correct a few misconceptions she had about her son and the way she had taken him in all those years ago. As far as she was concerned Loki was a dad who was forced to give up Adrian for adoption, but still wanted to be very much part of his life.

"Haven't told him, but I have an idea of what he would say. Hell and no."

Natasha blinked.

"Why?"

"Odin apparently believes that Loki is so desperate for a child to pass his magic to that he's willing to bed anyone and have a child out of wedlock. I doubt even if Frigga explained to him about the surrogate system he would understand, since according to both of them the king is pretty well set in his ways," said Adrian dryly.

"Which means you would have to wait until Loki or Thor takes the throne to be allowed in under your real identity as Loki's son," said Natasha.

"Which is why I'll be going undercover as a stranded blacksmith who fell into one of the many paths that cover the Yggdrasil. The Gatekeeper might keep watch over the bifrost, but he can't watch everywhere at once and Loki has traveled in secret before."

"What name are you going to hide under?"

"Baelfire."

"...You've been watching that show _Once Upon A Time_ again haven't you?" she asked suspiciously.

Baelfire was the name of Rumpelstiltskin's son, the one who left him after he became the Dark One, a being of great dark magic. He was also the father of one of the main characters, specifically the heroine's son Henry.

"What? Hel said it was suitable and it was good enough to pass cursory inspection...and that this was too amusing a prank not to play on our father," said Adrian.

Since unlocking part of his Aesir heritage, Adrian had been finally able to speak to his 'sister' Hel, the Queen of the dead. The two bonded over shows and their general dislike of Odin's rulings. She loved the series _Once Upon a Time_ as much as Adrian did. Though how she was able to watch it through Kara and Su's eyes without getting a headache, he had no idea.

"You are going under a disguise, right?" asked Natasha. Adrian looked too much like Loki for Odin to dismiss it as a coincidence.

Adrian rolled his eyes.

"Of course I'm going under disguise. Hel's going to cast a color changing spell on my hair and eyes and the rest will be up to me. I can't wait to see dad's face when he finds out I'm in the gatekeeper's range," grinned Adrian evilly.

Natasha almost pitied Loki...Adrian was going to give him gray hairs for certain with this. Do Asgardians get gray hairs from stress?

* * *

Adrian turned into his crow form carrying only the essentials. Things that wouldn't be out of place in the other eight realms. Kara cawed beside him, eager to be off. Natasha had already dropped Verde off with someone who wouldn't mind having a snake that tended to curl inside shirts. (She left him with Bruce Banner, who actually liked snakes so long as they weren't trying to kill him.)

He cawed back, having mastered crow tongue through years of practice, migraine medication and eventually mastering his crow form. He tensed, then spread his wings as wide as he could go and took off. Kara flew ahead of him, showing him the wind currents until he located an unused path that had been left behind when the Asgardians pulled back from Midgard.

Adrian felt a weird sensation from traveling through the old ways, but he shrugged it off. Stopping now would leave him stranded and that was the last thing he needed. Loki hadn't shown him nearly enough of the network for him to travel through it as easily as his father could.

He passed through stars and planets both until he came into an icy realm not meant for the living. A great wolf growled nearby before a sharp whistle called it off.

Kara circled the woman, who looked like she was a half-rotted corpse, half beautiful maiden in royal regalia. Kara landed on her shoulder and she petted the feathers.

"Welcome...little brother," she said calmly.

Adrian changed back to his human form and without a second thought about her appearance hugged her tightly.

"Hi sis. Glad we could finally meet each other," he said honestly.

Hel was taken aback by the fact he had hugged her without hesitation, but smiled warmly and wrapped her arms around him.

"I agree. We should have done this much sooner," she said pleased.

Adrian grinned at her.

Hel ignored the fact Adrian didn't eat any of the food presented. It was a well known fact in the Nine realms that to eat the food in the court of the dead was to increase the chance you would forever remain a resident. Just looked at what happened to that fool girl Persephone. She ate from Hades' garden and ended up having to marry the man to avoid her just punishment.

"I hope you've slept well, little brother."

"Well enough. Good thing I'm used to the cold," said Adrian calmly.

"Good. Because we had better start on the cover ID you'll use to fool Odin. If he even detects a falsehood he might try to learn more about you from Heimdall and that's the last thing we need."

Adrian shivered. Hel had helpfully shown him what happened to his predecessors, though he had to admit Fenrir was less of a snarling beast and more a giant puppy dog. The poor guy was starved for attention.

At least he was chained up in Hel's realm, so she could visit him. Jörmungandr was a bit trickier, as even she had trouble locating his head.

However the great serpent was eager to speak to his youngest sibling who actually _knew_ snake tongue well enough to hold a conversation. Hel promised to keep an eye out for him so Adrian could finally meet his other brother.

Sleipnir he could meet once he reached Asgard.

"Which means I'll have to brush up on blacksmithing. Good thing I took a few courses in it while I lived in Russia for a year," said Adrian.

Part of the requirement to keep his position as one of the heirs of the Romani family was that he had to spend a year in Russia learning the family magics before he turned seventeen.

Adrian had mastered most of the basics before he turned sixteen, and had spent the rest learning about enchanting weapons from the goblin clans that lived in the cold country. He was allowed in a forge to make simple things like nails and the like, but he hadn't gotten to the point he could make a sword and not mess it up.

He had planned to make a return trip to learn more, but then he got called in to deal with one thing after another. Then the goblins warned him of the contract, and he decided it was the perfect time to travel the other eight realms until the thing was rendered void because he wasn't on the planet at the time.

Hel worked with him on his cover until he could recite it without making it sound rehearsed. She also had a few goblin dead help with his technique so he could rightfully claim to be a junior blacksmith. It would explain his muscles and Aesir strength until Odin or Frigga 'blessed' him with the right of an Asgardian.

It was rare, but occasionally people from the other nine realms were granted the status of an Aesir and allowed to live in Asgard. It was how the Warrior's three had lived as long as they had.


	7. Chapter 7

It was shortly after a raider attack that Baelfire came out of the forest looking like he had been on the wrong end of a fight. He was bruised, bloody and more importantly he had the weapons of a dead raider.

The people didn't question his tale of being attacked by raiders, or that he had barely survived. They took his story of being a blacksmith who lived deep in the woods and didn't try to verify it.

Baelfire couldn't believe how easy it was to bluff his way into their village. The miracle of living in a world where the internet and technology had yet to take off he supposed. Hel had even helped by giving him the basic info of the world she was sending him to so no one asked any questions.

* * *

"So whatcha doing for today Bae?" asked the innocent child.

Baelfire, or Bae for short to the villagers, was apprenticed to the local blacksmith to complete his training, since he had been making do with what little his 'master' had taught him before he was killed. At least he had finally gotten some headway on making his own weapons. Though he would wait until he had much better quality materials to work with before he even considered reforging his personal weapons.

"Have to forge a few things before the Master lets me have the day off. He said I've been working too much and I'll need to take a day away from the forge before I end up hunched over," joked Bae.

"Can you come play with us?" asked the tiny girl, who's name was Eowyn ironically enough.

"Sure I can play with you and the others. Who else can make you fly without wings?" he laughed. The children loved to be spun around so fast that their feet left the ground. It was as close as they ever got to traveling the bifrost without leaving home.

"Yay!" cheered Eowyn.

Bae was about to put another strip of metal onto the forge to make more nails when they heard the sound of the alarm. Eowyn's eyes widened in fear as she raced behind Bae.

It was well known that he would defend children and the women without hesitation during a raider's attack. His natural strength had been a great boon in protecting them from harm. The men took solace in the fact Bae would keep them safe while they held the raiders off until Thor and the Warrior's three made it.

Baelfire took out ten raiders before the some of the men came to take his place so he could deal with the larger group. His strength and skill would be needed to chase them off.

"Stay safe everyone," said Bae as he grabbed his largest hammer and ran outside.

Bae fought like the devil, and during the ruckus he received a decent sized hit to the head causing him to drop his hammer. He heard a thud and scrambled to grab his weapon to continue the fight. He frowned at the odd grip, but ignored it to keep fighting in the here and now. A few seconds later Thor grabbed his hammer from the ground rather than take a few seconds to summon it to his hand, though his first clue that he had grabbed the wrong one was after he realized that the head had melted under the force of his lighting.

Still, after the smoke cleared and the raiders captured, it took him little time to locate where his hammer was...and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Standing in the middle of a good sized group of unconscious raiders was a youth with his hammer, carrying it with perfect ease.

The boy was muscled and a bit lanky, but clearly very strong for his age. He was almost a foot shorter than Heimdall, and he had deep red hair. Turning Thor could see teal colored eyes that shone with intelligence and kindness. He wore a blacksmith's apron, and from the way the villagers greeted him he was well known in the area.

Seeing that the raiders were being lead away in chains, the youth went to find someone to bind his head wound before he keeled over. Thor followed, partly to retrieve his hammer and partly to learn more about the boy.

"Baelfire, what have I told you about ducking!" clucked the healer.

"And give you less work? It was difficult enough trying to find my hammer in all that dust, how can I be expected to duck at the same time?" replied Baelfire flippantly.

The healer gave him a look...before she saw the hammer in his hand and gaped.

"What?"

"I believe she is startled to see you holding _my_ hammer. It seems we switched during that large dust cloud without realizing," said Thor openly.

Bae squinted at his hammer before he expertly flipped it so that the handle was facing Thor.

"Sorry about that. I thought the grip felt wrong," said Bae.

"And I was surprised to find that my weapon melted after I passed my lightning through it," joked Thor, accepting his weapon back.

"Melted?" asked Bae in dread. It had been hard enough getting the blacksmith to trust him with his best hammer!

Thor showed him what was left of it, and Bae sighed.

"Great. There goes my apprenticeship," he said in annoyance.

"Apprenticeship?" asked Thor.

"Baelfire is a junior blacksmith. He's fairly talented, but is occasionally clumsy when it comes to carrying his finished works out of the forge," explained the healer, finishing the bindings.

"Had to come up with some way to pacify my mother once she learned I fell through the old ways by mistake. She'll never let me hear the end of it unless I bring something to make up for not listening to her warnings about the forest," said Bae.

Thor laughed openly at that story. If he had to chose between pacifying his mother for not listening to her or facing her wrath, he would avoid his home realm as well if given the choice! Too bad Odin, or worse, Loki would drag him back to face the music. He would swear that his brother took far too much pleasure in seeing him getting berated by Frigga.

"Perhaps you can make up for losing the hammer by bringing a new one from Asgard. I'm sure my father would be interested to meet someone who can wield mine without dropping it," said Thor.

Baelfire looked past Thor to the blacksmith he was apprenticed under, and grimaced.

"Considering the murderous look on his face, that's probably a better idea than trying to find someone else to accept me as an apprentice," he said. Thor let out another booming laugh.

This youth was very entertaining.

* * *

Loki had been getting a strange feeling of foreboding for months, and he had no idea why. He knew Hel was partially behind it because Kara had shown up a while back and not left.

Then he saw the youth Thor had brought back from another raider's attack and his heart nearly stopped from shock and fear.

What in Hel's name was _Adrian_ doing in Asgard?!

Seeing the surprised look in Frigga's eyes, she recognized him pretty fast as well. Then he noticed open amusement in her features.

Loki listened to Thor's tale and barely kept from groaning out loud.

Adrian used Thor's hammer without realizing it until after the raid and Thor found out? And what was this about him being an apprentice blacksmith?

At least his son could act in front of Odin. He showed no open signs of recognition when he saw Loki or Frigga. And he acted as though he only knew of the Warrior's three by word of mouth.

Odin required a demonstration of Adrian's ability to wield the hammer though, something he did with shocking ease for Loki and Frigga by destroying a target a good sized distance away. He didn't know how to summon it back to his hand like Thor though.

Loki felt relief when Odin said the boy could stay for now, learning under the castle blacksmith's since it was unlikely the one he had been training under would take him back, new hammer or not. He had been fairly angry over the loss of his best hammer.

That gave him the perfect chance to pretend to learn more about 'Baelfire' without drawing Odin's attention to the fact they knew each other.

And find out why in Helheim his son was in Asgard when he was supposed to be on Midgard until either Thor or Loki were made king...or better yet he did something to earn Odin's attention in a positive way.

* * *

Bae paid no mind to Kara, though he did look up when he sensed Loki's presence. He waited for a spell of concealment first though before he dealt with Loki concerns.

"What in Valhalla are you doing here?!" hissed Loki once the spell was in full effect.

It was a trick he had come up with to avoid Heimdall's notice. It made the conversation much different than the one they were having.

"Some twit had a marriage contract and Hel agreed it would be an amusing prank on you," said Adrian flatly, enjoying the look of disbelief on his father's face.

"A prank?! You think this is a big prank? Thor becomes king in a few short years, couldn't you have _waited_ before coming?" hissed Loki.

Adrian rolled his eyes.

"I was planning on lying low in Vanaheim until the coronation, then I would have made my way into Asgard through the old paths. I didn't mean to pick up that damn hammer by accident, or have Thor notice me until after Odin was in his hibernation cycle," said Adrian.

"What's this about you being a blacksmith?"

"No one would question my strength if I had a decent cover story for it, and blacksmiths as a rule are stronger than normal. Besides, it's a hobby."

Loki ran his hand through his hair in frustration.

"Do you have any idea how dangerous it is for you to be here? What if Odin..."

"I have a cover story that even Odin won't bother to look through unless I give him a reason to. As far as he knows I fell through one of the old paths by mistake and have decided to avoid my mother until I have a way to curb her anger for not listening to her. Hel and I worked through my story and she gave me all the information I would need. She's also agreed to make several fake people to back up my story if anyone comes looking for a Baelfire."

"Why Baelfire?" asked Loki.

"There's this TV series on Earth called _Once Upon A Time_, and one of the characters is the son of Rumpelstiltskin, also known as the Dark One. His name is Baelfire, though he also goes by Neal or Bae. Besides, it was the first thing that came to mind," said Adrian.

"So have you seen your brothers and sister yet?" asked Loki.

"I went through Helheim to get where I was, and I've seen Fenrir. He's like a giant overgrown puppy," deadpanned Adrian.

"Bet Hel was pleased to finally see you," said Loki.

"She seemed shocked and happy that I openly hugged her without a second thought. Then she applied the color charms on my eyes and hair."

"So what cover should we use to hide our meetings?" asked Loki finally.

Adrian was here now, and there was nothing he could do about it until Thor took the throne and he explained things for his brother. Thor was at least more understanding than Odin was.

"How about enchantments? I mean it wouldn't be unusual for you to teach me how to enchant my own weapons and it would be the perfect reason for us to meet in public," said Adrian.

"It's a start," grumbled Loki. He wasn't happy that his son was in Asgard at this time.

Frigga met with Adrian under the guise of helping him find a way to 'pacify' his mother...and to subtly push him towards some eligible females in Asgard. Adrian took the hints with good humor, mostly because she had an easier time hiding from Odin than Loki did. Thor had to rib Adrian about that whenever the opportunity presented itself, because he still found the reason why Baelfire didn't return home hilarious.

* * *

Two years. That was how long Adrian was in Asgard. Odin never once questioned his story or looked into where he had come from, as his cover had been airtight. Even Heimdall never gave him more than a cursory glance when he learned the boy could use Mjolnir as easily as Thor could.

The hammer was more picky about who could use it than even Odin was about who was let in to the ranks of the Aesir.

It took Adrian eighteen of those twenty-four months to get that 'privilege', and it made hiding infinitely easier.

As far as Odin knew, Adrian's full strength came from Frigga's blessing, not naturally through his father.

Thor's coronation was in a month, and Adrian was getting ready by preparing his gift to the soon-to-be-king.

But first he had to reforge his weapons since he bent them by mistake in the training grounds. He had a few mishaps since he was finally able to use his full power without drawing attention.

He had the scales Jörmungandr collected by Hel, fur from Fenrir and a few strands of Hel's hair, from both halves of her head. They had each insisted on contributing to the weapons since they were all so fond of him. Loki and Frigga had donated something to the weapons as well.

Loki would enchant the weapons once they were done so that they had similar spells to Thor's hammer. Frigga had donated the fires he would use to temper the metal as well as a spell so that he could cool them off in Jotunheim without angering the Frost Giants.

Thor had allowed Baelfire to borrow his hammer to make his weapons...he was spending the next few days in the training ground sparring with his fellow warriors without it.

Sif thought it was about time. He had grown far too reliant on his hammer in a fight.

Adrian used the special flames Frigga had captured for him and heated the metal until it was red hot and almost melted. From there he added the powdered scales of Jörmungandr to it, and hammered it to a thin shape, reheating as he went. Each time he added the powder, the metal took the shape of a serpent's hide...absorbing some of Jörmungandr's power.

This would allow it to lengthen as long as Adrian needed it to be and give it extra strength. It would also give him an automatic control of any snakes he came across, even the older ones who didn't respect the 'speakers' as they were called.

He could control a bound thousand-year-old basilisk with these weapons, spells or not. It also made him immune to their gaze, a definite bonus.

Next came the shape of the weapon.

Adrian spread the metal out until it was paper thin, useless for a sword. Then again, he only collected swords, never used them. He folded the metal repeatedly, added to the strength.

Finally he began to shape the metal. Unlike before, his battle fans wouldn't be made entirely out of adamantium and whatever special metals he could get from the goblins.

The edges were sharper than any sword available, and thin enough to make it past any armor the Asgardians made. In between the two outer blades, Adrian spread the enchanted metal so that it could fold up. The metal was so thin that it could be used as paper. Too weak for any real practical use now. But Adrian tended to use his fans for other things, and it would become strong enough once Loki was done with the enchantments.

Next came the final cooling once the shape was the way he wanted it. Adrian summoned the portal into a lake inside Jotunheim and dunked it. The sudden shock hardened the metal to the point he would have to start over to make any real changed that wouldn't compromise the fans.

Satisfied with his new battle fans, Adrian set them aside and began the process all over for his other weapons.

Adrian used the more esoteric weapons, mostly because people always gave him the most amusing looks when they saw them. The battle fans were just his main ones that he could use to spread the Kiss to his enemies.

His next project was a pair of tonfa. This was infinitely easier to make as he didn't have to thin it out first. It took him less time to make those.

Finally he made his daggers, which Loki would enchant to return to him once thrown, or into the pouch he kept them in. He wasn't wasting time retrieving the things.

For his last project he made Thor's coronation gift, a new set of bracers that would allow him to take a sword to the arm without getting cut for it. He didn't add the powdered scales to this one, considering the old Ragnarok myth said that Thor would be killed by his scaly older brother.

The next morning he returned the hammer, having cleaned off the scales off it and spent the next two days braiding the fur and hair into straps. It was something he had to do by hand because he needed the weave to be tight, something that couldn't be guaranteed by a spell.

Loki enchanted all the weapons and put a basic set of protection spells on the bracers. It was a joint gift between him and Baelfire for Thor so he didn't have to think of something his brother probably wouldn't appreciate or use anyway.

Then he slept for a full day to recover his strength.


	8. Chapter 8

Adrian stood bored behind Loki as he watched Thor walk up like the arrogant braggart he was. Today was the coronation, and if things went well then he would be able to take his real identity as Loki's son instead of hiding as a blacksmith who was afraid of his mother's anger.

Frigga still found that cover story highly amusing considering she had met Natasha once, and while she was less than happy about her son taking such a dangerous undercover assignment, she had accepted his choice. The fact he had been able to hide for two full years without drawing suspicion only meant Adrian had learned her tricks of assuming a new identity very well and could take more assignments as a spy.

Adrian patiently waited for Odin to declare Thor Asgard's newest king when he sensed something coming from the old paths.

Loki had shown Adrian more of them under the suggestion of Frigga so he could 'visit' his mother without having to bother Heimdall.

At this point Baelfire had taken his punishment from his 'mother' and received her blessings to remain on Asgard until he came back on his own time. He claimed she wanted him to find an Aesir wife so she could brag about her new daughter-in-law to the other women, to Frigga's open amusement.

Natasha didn't care who Adrian married, so long as the girl could handle her own in a fight and genuinely cared for her son. If they got along, fine. If not, well then the girl had better watch her back or the Widow would come after her eventually.

Adrian shivered, as if sensing the chill of the worst Russia had to offer. He had never encountered a Frost Giant, so he didn't know what had crossed into Asgard.

Odin did, and he was quick to go to the Vault.

Adrian wisely stayed behind, because Loki had only shown him the Treasure Vault once through their dream sessions. Baelfire had no idea what was stored inside, nor did he particularly care. His main concern was his forge and becoming stronger through training.

Sif still couldn't believe the amount of eggs he consumed though.

* * *

Loki was furious. Whoever had let the frost giants in had ruined Adrian's best chance to be accepted into the Aesir ranks as his son. Now he would have to wait until they located the fool who let them in before Thor could be king!

He had no real interest in the throne, outside of giving Adrian his best chance to live.

So when Thor all but commanded his group of idiots to join him in an assault on Jotunheim to learn the culprit directly, Loki felt like slapping his brother on the back of the head...with one of Adrian's enchanted hammers. He could lift one of the lighter ones, but his son had definitely fooled everyone into believing his strength came mostly from the forge.

He still wasn't happy that Adrian was developing powers over the storms. He was his son, not Thor's!

Still, Adrian came anyway mostly because he had never seen a Jotun up close.

* * *

Adrian couldn't believe how stupid Thor was acting. Was he so arrogant that he believed he could demand answers from the King of the Jotuns when he was still technically a prince? Not even Odin would allow such an insult pass if a newcomer had come up into his kingdom acting like this.

Before Thor could attack Laufey or any of the frost giants, Adrian grabbed his spare hammer and lightly hit Thor on the head with it. He went down like a rock, but Adrian caught him.

"Baelfire, what..." started Sif.

"I am _not_ getting my head bashed in by a Jotun because of Thor's arrogance," said Adrian flatly.

"Good work," said Loki appreciatively, his headache dropping because of Adrian's quick thinking.

"Did you have to hit him so hard?" asked Sif unhappily.

"His head is too thick for anything else," retorted Adrian. He passed the still out-cold Thor to Hogun and gave a quick bow to Laufey, though it was clear he hated doing so.

"We're sorry for taking up your time. We'll take Thor back to Asgard before he makes a bigger fool of himself," he said.

Laufey snorted.

"_It looks like at least one of you Asgardians has some common sense,"_ he said derisively.

Loki snorted in agreement.

Once they were more or less out of the range of most of the Jotuns, Loki called up the gate.

And they came face-to-face with a less than pleased Odin on the other end. Thor groaned in pain as he came to.

"Which one of you hit me?" he demanded.

"I did. You would have attacked Laufey in his own kingdom at the first insult he gave you and started a war. It was either get into trouble with the Jotuns because of your arrogance, or knock you out first," said Adrian flatly.

"Attack Laufey?" said Odin sharply.

Loki snorted.

"Thor's big plan was to demand answers outright from the King of the Jotuns, and failing that start a brawl as usual. Baelfire knocked him out before he could do so and apologized before we left. You might have to do some quick talking to pacify the Jotuns in the near future though... I doubt they appreciate the attitude Thor displayed when he came," said Loki dryly.

Odin looked furious when he heard that.

Thor was pissed because 'Baelfire' had knocked him out before he got answers.

* * *

Thor was in a mood. Thanks to Baelfire he hadn't gotten the answers he wanted for who had let the Jotuns into the vault and he was in serious trouble with Odin. Baelfire, however, was also in trouble for something no one was sure about.

However rumors had that it was something to do with Loki. Thor leaned out his window in time to see a massive murder of crows flying off towards the bifrost only to veer off at the last second and disappear near the water. He blinked...that was very unusual.

Crows were messengers of Hel, so why were that many in Asgard? Was she delivering a message to her father Loki?

Odin came into the room shortly after with the news of his punishment.

He was being banished to Midgard until he learned humility since Odin learned the full scope of Thor's arrogance from Sif and the others.

* * *

Adrian groaned, then looked outside the window before rolling over.

He had taken the old ways back to Midgard after leaving a large trail of crows to confuse Heimdall in case Odin learned the full truth of who he was.

At this point he was being punished because Odin had found out that Adrian had come to Asgard under false pretenses...namely through Hel's realm. He had no idea that Baelfire was in fact Loki's son, only that he was far too close to Helheim for Odin to be happy about at this point.

As far as he was concerned, Baelfire was suspect for letting the Jotuns in. It was no secret that he was a newcomer who had been shown how to use the old ways by Loki, and that Hel had no love of Thor. It wasn't that far a stretch that she would have her avatar let the frost giants in just to ruin Thor's coronation day.

The fact he had been the one to knock Thor out when he went to get answers hadn't helped either.

And the first place he had gone was Tony's house to avoid seeing his mother just yet. Tony had taken that news with a half-grain of salt and an amused glimmer, telling Adrian that he was just in time to make it to Tony's fortieth birthday bash next week.

Adrian was about to fall back asleep when someone rudely slammed the blinds open, despite the fact he had specifically asked JARVIS to keep them closed. Blinking rapidly in the noonday light, he paled rather quickly when he realized who was there.

His mother was working undercover as Pepper's assistant, and Tony hadn't thought to mention the new hire. He was officially in his own personal hell, he just knew it. And somehow he also knew his sister was laughing her ass off at his predicament.

"Andy," she said evenly.

"Mom..." he said quietly.

"You have exactly two minutes to explain why you came back in a hurry before I get angry."

"It's all Thor's fault?" offered Adrian with a wince.

"Go."

Adrian explained in full sentences that he had been hiding rather well...right up until the coronation and the mess with the Jotuns. How Odin had sent agents in secret to confirm that the village Adrian claimed to be from actually existed, only to find a large group of crows in the place of the people. It didn't take a genius to figure out Hel was in on his story.

Natasha listened to his story in silence, before she grabbed his ear firmly and twisted.

"Ow, ow, ow!" yelped Adrian.

Natasha outlined exactly how much of an idiot she felt her son had been while she kept a firm grip on his ear. When she finally let go it was throbbing and he was hoping she would at least let him take a pain reliever.

"Now what have we learned?"

"Always double check to find out where your mother is when you've screwed up?" he said, rubbing his ear. Natasha tapped her foot in warning.

"Fine. Never assume your safe because you weren't found out in over a year. I wasn't even _planning_ to go to Asgard until after one of them succeeded Odin! Thor was the only reason I got roped into entering before I was planning!" said Adrian wincing.

Natasha raised an eyebrow.

"I was apprenticed to a blacksmith. News like Thor's coronation would have reached where I was fairly easily, and people like him well enough to spread that around. I planned to enter Asgard as Loki's son once dad had explained things to Thor and Odin was safely asleep, but then I picked up his hammer by accident and things snowballed," said Adrian.

"Speaking of hammers... One showed up in New Mexico yesterday night," said Natasha.

"Shit. I bet it's Thor's Hammer... Odin was pretty angry over his arrogance before I left."

"And how did he feel about you after he found out you weren't who you said you were?"

"He was pretty angry that I was one of Hel's special chosen and that she had helped me lie my way into Asgard. And he didn't believe me when I said never intended to come to Asgard. He was going to arrest me when I told him I would leave before I would let him throw me into a prison for something I didn't do."

"How did he take that?" asked Natasha.

"I told him flat out that I would return to Asgard with my honor intact, or not at all...then Hel set off her crows and I slipped away in the confusion. Don't know how he took that statement, because I made sure to leave several trails to avoid him finding out where I went."

"If you must know, he was confused by the statement until Frigga explained it to him. He was mildly impressed that you left of your own volition rather than accept his accusations that you let the Jotuns in to ruin Thor's coronation," said a voice from behind. It was Loki.

"Dad?"

"Loki. Why are you here?"

"Self-imposed exile, I believe is the term. When I heard the crows go off I packed a bag for a long-term stay on Midgard and told mother that without Adrian around I had no reason to stay since the only way he could clear his name now is if the real culprit is located or he does something to bring favor to his name among the Aesir."

"And how would he go about doing that?" asked Natasha with a raised eyebrow.

"At this point, the only way I can see him being allowed back without Odin restricting him is if he brought back the jewel of Odin's treasure room... the Tesseract," said Loki.

Adrian caught his mother tensing at the word. Clearly she knew something about it.

He would have to hack into S.H.I.E.L.D. later to find out what they knew of it.

* * *

Adrian barely kept Tony from making a fool of himself at his own party, to Pepper's relief. However he couldn't stick around after finding out that Thor's Hammer was in New Mexico.

It was bad enough that it had gained attention from the muggles... but there were several magicals who had noticed it's presence as well. Some of whom were rather greedy.

He would have to retrieve the hammer before some other idiot got their hands on it.

* * *

Adrian went down the large crater, and to the shock and disappointment of the others, picked up the hammer like it was nothing.

"What?"

"Damn. We've been trying to get that thing all day and it wouldn't budge!"

"I bet that truck earlier loosened it up," muttered another.

"Don't mess with the strength of a blacksmith," said Adrian smugly, flipping the hammer with expert ease.

Seeing the idiots leave with a grumble, Adrian cast a basic locator spell.

If Mjolnir made it to Earth, chances were Thor had as well. And he wanted a...word...with the blowhard.

It took him ten minutes to hitch a ride back to town and two to find Thor in the local diner.

He caught the cup Thor was about to smash and then proceeded to smack the idiot on the back of his head. Thor turned and looked very surprised and irritated to see Adrian there.

"It's made of glass not metal you _idiot_," said Adrian in irritation.

"You know him?" asked the woman who had run him over.

"Dr. Andy Romanic, at your service. Unfortunately I know this...man. I'm afraid the people he was raised by didn't teach him how to interact with normal folk like yourselves," he said.

"Andy Romanic? I've read your theories. Your paper on thermonuclear astrophysics was surprisingly well written for a thirteen-year-old," said the woman.

"Actually I was twelve. I turned thirteen a week after it was published," said Adrian with an easy grin, "So how did you meet tall, blond and arrogant here?"

"We ran him over. Darcy," said the brunette with the hat.

"Andy. You ran him over?" asked Adrian grinning. Thor was scowling.

"Why are you here Bae?" asked Thor.

"My _name_ (he stressed this) is actually Adrian. Not Baelfire. I only went by that name to avoid your father from learning I wasn't from any of the realms still in contact with Asgard. I'm originally from Midgard. And thanks to that little stunt you pulled with the Jotuns, Odin found out I lied about where I was from and thinks I set the frost giants into the Vault when I've never even seen the thing in person, let alone where the paths were," said Adrian in irritated.

"Why are you here Bae?" asked Thor.

"I'm here to insure the _hammer_ doesn't fall into the hands of a magical. I take it Odin didn't like the fact you barged into Jotunheim and pissed off Laufey just to get answers. My leaving probably didn't help either. And now thanks to you, I have to worry about Odin coming after me on my home," said Adrian angrily.

"You have the hammer?" asked Thor.

"Oh no. You are _not_ getting it back until the fact that the world _doesn't_ revolve around you gets through that thick head of yours! When it decides you've been punished enough, you can have it back. Until then I'll keep it safe to keep someone unworthy of it from getting their hands on it," said Adrian annoyed.


	9. Chapter 9

Adrian ended up staying in the building Jane rented for her lab space (it looked like an old car dealership) since he was the only one to claim Thor. When asked by Thor why Adrian didn't simply return to Asgard with the hammer, he had laughed...and it didn't sound warm at all.

"Return to Asgard with the hammer? I would be a fool to even try. Odin is still quite angry over the fact I lied about my origins and after the mess with the Jotuns I wouldn't even _dare_ return unless the real culprit is found or I had something to improve his temper towards me. What you fail to realize Thor is that I have every reason to see you _on_ the throne than keep you off it. Even Loki would prefer you on the throne rather than to try and take it by force by discrediting you," said Adrian.

"Why would you need him on the throne?" asked Jane, sipping her coffee.

Adrian removed his color charms and Thor sucked in a breath in shock.

"My full name is Adrian Romanov-Lokison. I'm one of the 'experiments' as Hel put it involving Loki's attempts to use a surrogate so he has someone to share his magic with," said Adrian.

"I thought your name is Romanic?"

"Romanov is a famous name, Ms. Foster. It's easier to use a pseudo-name instead," said Adrian.

"So what's the big deal about this experiment?" asked Selvig.

"Odin is extremely old-fashioned about some things. He seems to think that the surrogate system is another term for a child born of wedlock. Hence why Thor needed to be on the throne. He's younger and more open to new ideas...not to mention less likely to kill me out of hand just for existing," said Adrian.

"My father wouldn't kill you because your Loki's son," said Thor in confusion.

Adrian gave him a look.

"The first time Loki tried to use a surrogate, Odin killed the mother. Second time, the child was a stillborn. Third time, Heimdall told Odin about Loki's newest attempt and they arranged an accident. This time Loki chose to come to Midgard and let the infant grow up far from Odin's view. Earth's been abandoned by the Asgardians for centuries since the Frost Giant wars. So yes, I have ever reason to be paranoid about Odin learning who my father is," deadpanned Adrian.

"He's telling the truth brother," said Loki from the door.

"Loki? Did father throw you out too?" asked Thor.

"Self-imposed exile, brother. Adrian is the only reason I even cared for the throne. With him out of Asgard I had no reason to stay and every reason to leave. Midgard is infinitely more interesting without having to deal with Odin breathing down my neck," said Loki.

"So why are two gods here?" asked Erik.

"Long story short, some idiot set the frost giants loose in Odin's little treasure room the day he was being crowned king. I try to keep him from making a fool of himself, only to get busted for not being entirely honest about where I'm from or who I am. Odin assumed I'm the culprit, so I left shortly before he got tossed out to relearn what the definition of humility is. Loki only came here because he was sick of Odin's ruling on the use of surrogates and because I'm the only person he talks to outside of their mother Queen Frigga. So now I'm stuck on Earth until either Thor takes the throne, the real culprit is found, or I do something to offset lying to the King of Asgard," said Adrian.

"And why are you here?"

"Retrieving Thor's hammer before some other idiot gets it and seeing how much damage he's done. You can grill him for info all you want. The sooner he's back on Asgard the happier we'll be."

"And what of you brother?" asked Thor.

"I'm not going back until Adrian is allowed back."

"Speaking of unwanted visitors...time to prank Phil," said Adrian looking up with a smirk.

He had tagged the man years ago so he could annoy him. He changed into his crow form and waited for Phil to come within a mile of the town. Then he released a large balloon full of corn syrup that was red-colored. He cackled in crow speak when he heard Phil curse openly before he stuck his head out the window and saw the large bird flying overhead.

"Dammit Crow!" shouted Phil. Why hadn't anyone informed him that Adrian was back? He had two pleasant years of Clint's minor pranks that were easy to get out instead of dealing with Adrian's syrup-based ones.

Adrian landed on the side of the road and Phil pulled over.

"You don't write, you don't call... I'm starting to think you didn't miss me at all Phil," said Adrian cheekily.

Phil silently counted to ten.

"It's difficult to write or call someone who's in an entirely different part of the galaxy _Crow_," he said.

Adrian grinned.

"Why are you here?"

"The hammer Fury likely sent you to get? I've already collected it. You're free to examine the area where it landed, but it wouldn't do you much good. By now the energy readings are likely gone. And the only real use the hammer would have for S.H.I.E.L.D. is an impossible to move paperweight. Nothing could move it except for whomever the thing allows to pick it up."

"Why haven't you reported in?" asked Phil.

"I just got back less than forty-eight hours ago. Even I need downtime," said Adrian.

Phil glared at him before saying "You have another two hours before I tell Fury that you're back. Now about these visitors?"

"Loki said he'll help with S.H.I.E.L.D. as a consult, but he's not interested in working under Fury or the Council. Thor will likely return to Asgard once he gets his head out of his ass."

"We'll need to document the hammer before we leave," said Phil finally. He might as well get something out of this trip other than a massive headache from Adrian's return.

"Fair enough. Where are the cameras?" asked Adrian.

It took them an hour to document the hammer, and another five before Phil gave up on cleaning the syrup off and had to remove the windshield in order to get anyway. He was picking bugs out of his teeth for days. Clint was very proud.

* * *

"_Agent Crow. Why didn't you report immediately when you returned?"_ asked Fury.

"One, I had to leave in a hurry and it took a lot out of me to travel through the old ways just to get home. Two, I needed some down time and I think I earned that much with the information and help I brought back. And three, I don't technically report to you as you recall," said Adrian.

"_...Fair enough. So why did you cut the mission short without alerting us first?"_

"Someone let the Jotuns loose into Odin's treasure room during the coronation ceremony. Thor gets the _bright_ idea of demanding answers from the king of the Frost Giants Laufey, and my actions in preventing a war from breaking out immediately had Odin looking into my background again and finding out I was working with Hel. Hel doesn't exactly _like_ Thor, so he immediately assumes I set the Giants in Asgard, despite having never seen the room in question or know where it's actually located. Instead of being arrested I left, leaving thousands of false trails for them to follow, only to learn that Odin sent Thor here."

"_So a series of bad luck and poor timing?"_ said Fury dryly.

"Pretty much. Loki's said that until my name is cleared and Odin sees reason, he's not going back to Asgard. Unfortunately because of the way I left he said that it would take something big to earn my way back into Odin's good graces."

"_And the hammer?"_

"Would you rather some idiot human getting their hands on it and using all the power of Earth's storms without knowing what he's doing, or having a trusted Agent claim it until Thor gets his head out of his ass and returns home?"

"_Point. I want your report in a week... You _have_ earned a bit of downtime. Oh, and Clint is going to be your handler until Coulson is no longer ready to shoot you on sight,"_ added Fury.

"Sweet. Prank war with Clint," said Adrian with a grin.

Adrian loved to prank his handlers. Fury had never dared to give him any Agents of his own (barring Blade who refused to work with anyone directly except Adrian) because he was afraid that Adrian would drive them insane in short order with his infamous prank wars. Coulson swore his gray hairs came not from any mission, but from Adrian.

Fury tended to agree with him on that front.

* * *

_In Asgard..._

He smirked. The plan had gone so much better than he hoped. He had gotten rid of Thor, the brat who had claimed Loki's attention and forced Loki himself out of Asgard all with one move. Odin was more focused on Midgard than he was on his own home, which was perfect for his plans.

Amora was right... Odin was getting too old for the job.

He smirked. She had been so pleased when she found out who he actually was, or more specifically who his father was. So what if he was one of Loki's little experiments? He had the right bloodline to claim the throne...all he had to do was get rid of the ones in his way.

Thor was gone, Baelfire had fled rather than to be arrested for _his_ work, and Loki had gone into a self-imposed exile. And to top it all off, Odin had fallen into Odinsleep from the pain of losing both his sons.

Baldur had to assume the throne since Loki was nowhere to be found in the Nine Realms and Frigga wasn't talking about where he vanished to. Many believed he had gone to stay with his daughter Hel or his son Fenrir rather than assume the throne in light of Thor's punishment.

Midgard was so far away that it was unlikely Loki _or_ Thor would be able to stop him from taking his rightful place as the new Prince of Asgard...especially since Baldur wasn't even ready to be king. He was always considered the spare. And with Amora the Enchantress on his side, there was nothing Frigga could do to stop him.

* * *

"Tony...what the hell?" asked Adrian. He had been home three days and already one of his friends was being grounded by Fury.

"Andy! And friend," said Tony when he saw Loki. He was laying on a ruined couch.

"Tony, what in Valhalla's name did you do now?" asked Adrian pinching the bridge of his nose. With Thor more or less settled in New Mexico with a very interested Jane Foster, Adrian had returned to California to check on Tony who had been looking worse since he had seen him two years ago.

"He's being poisoned from the inside," said Loki, running a quick spell.

"Tony...exactly what cores do you use to power that arc reactor of yours?" asked Adrian.

"Palladium," he said.

"Palla... You idiot! How can a man as intelligent as you think that using unshielded palladium cores is a good idea, especially that close to your heart?! No wonder you look like shit!" said Adrian.

"Gee, you can feel the love," said Tony snarkily, before he winced.

"Why exactly does he have something glowing in the general area of a human's heart?"

"He took shrapnel to the chest, and without that arc reactor and to pull it back it would go into his heart and kill him within days, if not hours. And there's too many small pieces to simply remove them even with magic," said Adrian.

"Who is _he_ by the way?" asked Tony.

"Loki, of Asgard...and Andy's father. Unfortunately I had to leave in a hurry so Andy has kindly offered to put up with me until I settle in or the circumstances change," said Loki.

"Right... So your dad believes he's a Norse god?" asked Tony.

"We'll discuss this _after_ we save your life. Got anywhere I can set up shop so I can hack S.H.I.E.L.D. files to see if they had any better ideas?"

"Fury mentioned my father knew about another energy source. Think that could help?" asked Tony.

He was on death's door...there was no way he'd turn down genuine help from someone he knew he could trust, even if he hadn't seen Andy in years.

"The only thing I can think of that Howard Stark would have been involved in was HYDRA's secret weapon from WWII. Though it was supposedly lost... But that does give me a direction to look in," said Adrian.

It took him ten minutes to find Howard's files from that time in cold storage, and what he did find had him shouting for Loki in a hurry.

"What is that?" asked Tony, having heard the shout.

"The Tesseract. Out of all the worlds it could have been on it was here the whole time. Though this does explain why no one had found it since it went missing millenia ago," said Loki.

"What is it?"

"A source of unlimited energy, if what the legends say are true. It was supposed to be the crown jewel of Odin's vault, but it went missing shortly after the war with the Jotuns and never seen again. Anyone who brought it to Asgard could almost name their price in return."

"And it could be the answer to Tony's problem with his arc reactor. According to this file Howard Stark had a second diorama of his fair made shortly after the war ended, only it featured things that hadn't been in the original one. Now if I were going to hide an energy source..." Adrian left hanging.

"I have a copy of the second fair in my office...but Pepper's running the place at the moment," said Tony.

"I'll call ahead. You two get things set up here so we can fix Tony's reactor," said Adrian.

It took him ten minutes to get to the office and retrieve the 3-D copy of the second World Fair, and five to get back without losing it. Pepper had been more accommodating since Adrian told her what was really going on with Tony and why he needed it.

Honesty might not be the best policy for a spy, but sometimes it made things so much easier than trying to lie.

* * *

"Contact in three...two...one..." said Tony as he aligned the laser to the container.

It was so powerful that it literally cut into the walls...it was a miracle the load bearing beams hadn't been hit with the thing.

There was a bright flash of light, and when they could see again there was a new reactor...one that had the same energy signature as the Tesseract itself.

"We really need to get our hands on the Tesseract," said Loki.

"Not at the moment we don't," corrected Adrian. Tony was replacing his current reactor with the new one, and the difference was immediate. He was almost out of the danger zone...he just had to work out the poisoning first.

"Why don't you want to get this cube thing and return to this...Asgard place?" asked Tony.

"I had to leave because Odin found out I wasn't who I said I was...and that was right after someone let the frost giants into the vault. How do you think it would look if I showed up with the crown jewel of the same vault they broke into when it was missing for centuries after the mess we left getting _out_ of Asgard? Better to let them cool off or find the real culprit first," said Adrian.

Loki considered that and had to agree. It would be far more suspicious if Adrian returned to Asgard with the Tesseract without having cleared his name first when the Giants had tried to break into the Vault. For all Odin knew the thing was a trap to have a second go at the treasure inside, despite the fact Adrian had no real interest in them.


	10. Chapter 10

Adrian felt the hammer tug from the pocket realm he stashed it in and when he let it out it flew straight to Thor. He rolled over in the cots Pepper had brought over once Tony had confirmed that yes, he wasn't dying anymore, but the place was wrecked.

At the moment Adrian was resting his eyes because Tony had gotten a hot tip from Fury that the Russian who had showed up at the racetrack wasn't dead just yet. And worse still, Hammer had broken him out of prison just to teach Tony a lesson.

Adrian was the only one who could hack Hammer's servers and decrypt the notes Ivan left on there...because he was the only one who spoke fluent enough Russian among the three of them. Even JARVIS would take a few hours just to translate half of it.

However after four hours of reading tiny type after being away from his laptop for two years, his eyes needed time off.

It didn't help that his own mother told Fury that he was hacking into their files just to get into Hammer's system and he had been locked out.

Boy had Tony been shocked to find Pepper's new 'assistant' was in fact Adrian's mother. He hadn't strayed towards her ass again since Adrian told him though, so he didn't care that he had technically blown her cover. She would have to ditch the job soon enough anyway once the mess with Hammer was over with, but it was a serious breach of her training.

Natasha was less than pleased when Loki told her. Once this was cleared up Adrian was going to either go through retraining, or take a long vacation just being himself.

At this point Fury was inclined just to send him into Europe to clear out these...Death Eaters...since the only resistance they dealt with had pretty much died off when they learned that their precious Savior, a pure blood magical named Neville, wasn't even the right boy let alone the right material to lead a fight. Voldemort was running roughshod over the European nations and Fury wanted to have him offed before he tried to leave his little corner of the world and gave him a bigger headache.

There was a knock on the door.

"I come bearing food and a migraine reliever," said Loki.

"I smell pie," said Adrian sitting up.

"Tony ordered apple."

"No whip cream on it right?"

"Not since you expressed your dislike of the foodstuff the last time you ordered a milkshake," said Loki.

"Goody."

Adrian all but devoured the pie and the pizza Tony had ordered, mostly because he hadn't had any since leaving Midgard.

"So how goes the hacking?"

"So far I've been able to find that this Ivan character is making drones of your armor. Not very good ones, but they'll work for a military budget that doesn't feel like training people. The problem is that he's got a code built in that will lock Hammer out once it's reached a certain stage and it's going to take me a few hours to figure out how to get past it. I'm a little rusty when it comes to hacking since I've been gone," said Adrian yawning.

"You could always try a more direct route," said Loki around his pepperoni pizza.

"How so?" asked Tony.

"Shortly after he started displaying similar powers to Thor, I noticed that his ability didn't exactly lean towards weather magic like my brother did. I had no idea why that was until I saw how quickly he was able to breach that spirit you call JARVIS. I believe, and this is only a hunch mind you, that Adrian's electrical power is more inclined towards direct interface with technology rather than weather," said Loki.

Which would explain why someone who enjoyed flying so much had as much difficulty controlling a thunderstorm after Thor taught him how to do so. He had barely been able to reign it in before a tornado was formed in the middle of the training grounds.

After that he stuck primarily to enchanting and blacksmithing.

"You think that would work?" asked Adrian, looking pensive.

"I think it's more likely than you being able to duplicate half of Thor's control over weather," said Loki.

"Worth a shot...and it would be interesting to see if it was possible," said Tony.

Tony was all for the spirit of scientific observation...and Loki was more than happy to help out once he realized how much of a child the man actually was. The first time he had pranked Pepper she had slapped him and Tony both.

He liked her already.

* * *

Adrian sat in the middle of the floor in the best position he found for reaching into his core. Outside, Loki and Tony were discussing the different sciences that existed in Asgard and Earth.

He took a deep breath...and dropped into his core.

He found the signs of Mjolnir's influence pretty quick...it sparked like a shorted out wire.

Touching it, he saw without seeing the various lines of energy flowing through the house. It took him a second to realize that Loki might have had a very good point about where his real ability lay in concerns to his lightning magic.

He could see every line of wiring in the house.

Reaching out to touch the box he knew housed part of JARVIS' AI programming...and found himself inside a weird cyber area.

"_Who's there?"_ asked JARVIS.

"Holy crap...it actually worked?" said Adrian.

JARVIS sounded rather...startled.

It took Adrian a few minutes to figure out how to get back out...and from there his training regiment took a whole new direction.

* * *

"Loki... Have you seen Adrian? He hasn't reported in to the office in two whole days," asked Natasha. If her cover was blown she wasn't going to bother hiding around Tony.

"He's in here. Give me a minute to snap him out of his trance."

Loki tossed in a lit firecracker and was rewarded with his son's cursing in Russian, Japanese, German, French, Latin and English all in the same breath. Natasha raised a single eyebrow.

"What?" demanded Adrian.

Natasha said nothing but grabbed him by the ear and dragged him to the nearest counter where there was a bowl of fruit on the table. One of Pepper's contributions to the house and a vain attempt to insure Tony didn't eat nothing but junk food.

Adrian descended on the fruit like a wolf on a wounded lamb. He was that hungry.

"How long has he been in there?"

"JARVIS?"

"36 hours, fifty-five minutes and thirty seconds," supplied the AI.

Natasha glared at Loki.

"And you didn't think to drag him out sooner?"

Loki didn't looked one bit ashamed.

"He's an Asgardian. He can handle a few days of no sleep."

"And no food or water?" said Natasha irate. Now Loki looked a little embarrassed.

"Now why was Adrian in a closed off room for over a day and a half?" she demanded.

"I found out what Mjolnir did to my magic. I can control technology with my mind," yawned Adrian. Now that he had eaten and drank something, he was dead tired. His head met the counter-top with a thump, followed by a long drawn out snore.

"And what does that mean?"

"The hammer of Thor not only chooses the one to use it, it also imparts a degree of control over lightning. In my brother's case it gave him a greater degree of power over weather. However when Adrian tried to duplicate it, he had mixed results. I merely suggested that his ability lied in another form of electricity," said Loki.

"And that required him being locked in a room for several hours?!"

"_The door was never locked. And to be blunt, Adrian successfully hacked into my nearest server on his first try once he knew what to look for,"_ supplied JARVIS.

Natasha blinked. JARVIS was so sophisticated that even S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't bother trying to hack him.

Seeing her son actually drooling on the counter though, her eyebrow twitched.

Terrorist or not, Adrian was going back into basic training before he was allowed on another mission. She didn't care what Fury said, he was too big a liability if he kept forgetting all the training he went through growing up.

* * *

Adrian was dosed by Natasha, shipped by Tony and Loki, and given an all-expenses paid trip to the Caribbean by Fury.

It might have seemed like a dream vacation for some, but there was an ulterior purpose for it. Once a year during the summer, S.H.I.E.L.D. sponsored a month long series of seminars that had to be either completed or passed before the agents could return to active duty.

The agents could go to any of them, but they had to get a passing grade before they left.

And Adrian was forced to take half the courses before the month was over, or he was suspended.

"Ow...my head. Who overdosed on the sleeping gas?" said Adrian to himself.

"Welcome!" said a far too chipper voice.

Adrian blearily looked at the woman, then at the area he was in.

"Oh hell no... I've been drafted for one of those mandatory vacation/retraining seminars haven't I?" he asked the woman.

"I have no idea!" she said without changing her facial expression.

"Annoying chipper greeting woman, three people I can recognize off hand that always take the retraining course for a paid vacation...Coulson looking rather murderous at the moment and the fact I'm in a tropical paradise? Please, don't bother trying to break the standard greetings on my account," said Adrian flatly. He had a raging headache.

"Romanov," said Coulson looking rather irritated.

"Phil. If it makes you feel any better I'm fairly certain my mother was the one who drugged and shipped me here against my will."

Coulson thought about that a moment, before he perked up.

"That does make me feel a little better. Shall we agree on a truce?" asked Phil.

"Truce until the mandatory vacation is over? Or you help me escape?"

"Why did Natasha ship you here?"

Adrian made a face.

"Read the note she left and Tony signed with far too much enthusiasm," he said.

Phil took one look at the note Natasha left on him for Adrian to find and said "I don't speak Russian."

"Turn it over. She helpfully left it in English...or Tony had it translated."

"_'Adrian, before you burn out from stress I am shipping you to the mandatory vacation funded by S.H.I.E.L.D. with one simple task. Go out and either get laid or find a hobby that doesn't involve work or killing. If you don't, then Loki is under orders from me to bind your powers and dump your ass in the Amazon for an extra month before I put you through my personal retraining course and Clint will use your crow form as target practice. Love Mom.' _Oh this is classic. The Widow is telling you to get a girlfriend?" laughed Phil. This was the ultimate blackmail material!

"Figured that would make your day. Though what I have planned for your next birthday should really pay you back for all the pranks I've played," said Adrian.

Yes, he heckled Phil all the time and drove the man insane for laughs...but that didn't mean he hated the man. He admired Phil for putting up with people like him without a word of complaint other than to pile endless mission reports on them and making them clean up after themselves.

Which was why Adrian hadn't been exactly idle while he had locked himself in that room for several hours. He had gotten the hang of his lightning powers three hours in. When he saw the reminder of Phil's birthday after the company retreat, he decided to at least make up for half the crap he put him through.

Phil Coulson was a total nut over the old spy gear. He went goo-goo eyed over all the original James Bond crap from the sixties. So Adrian had spent ten whole hours finding, buying and paying for the restoration of some authentic spy gear that was used before S.H.I.E.L.D. became real. Most of it was decommissioned things from World War 1 and 2, and some of it was from the same group Steve had been a part of before the H.Y.D.R.A. was dismantled. Hell, he even had found some of the same gear Bucky Barnes had used before he went missing, since his body had never actually been recovered.

Phil was sure to love it. Fury wasn't, since he had also managed to get his hands on a picture of the man as a rookie field agent. Carefully hidden under fifty firewalls and so many trojan horses it shouldn't have seen the light of day under normal circumstances.

That would be a fun way to see Phil's reaction to seeing the picture of Fury _with_ hair and both eyes.

* * *

Abigail Whistler didn't know why Clint had signed her up for the organization retreat, but she could care less. It was a month of free time on a beautiful beach and all expenses were paid. So what if she had to take a few classes and share a bungalow with someone else? It was a small price for a paid vacation!

Still, she did wonder why her 'older brother' as she liked to think of him had high-fived Natasha, the woman who updated her fighting style and made her much more efficient, shortly after she agreed to go.

She got along better with Clint than she did with Natasha. Hell, even her new code name, the Falcon, was a tribute to the fact that the two archery enthusiasts were like brother and sister.

"Hi. Reservation for Whistler?" said Abby.

"Whistler... Whistler... Here we are! Bungalow twenty-five. Says here that the other occupant has asked for a privacy curtain so you should have something close to your own room, but I'm afraid there's only one shower in it," said the chipper woman.

"That's fine."

"Here's your key, and a list of all the seminars available. Please note you will have to complete at least five and take a day-long exam and pass with an adequate score before you're allowed back into field work. You can complete this exam at any time, and the seminars are available both online and in person. There are no phones or wireless allowed, and the technology you can use are for the seminars only. Also, any and all weapons are allowed, provided you have your ID on hand and a good excuse for use. Are there any questions?" asked the receptionist.

"Just one. Why does S.H.I.E.L.D. sponsor a retreat like this every year? I mean isn't this sort of against the whole secret organization thing they have?" asked Abigail.

The woman's fake smile didn't falter.

"Because the only ones who take this are either dangerous enough that they warrant retraining, the better agents in need of a free vacation, or people who are forced to take some time off whether they want to or not. Anyone stupid enough to attack this many agents who are allowed to keep their weapons and protected by a barrier that knocks out any missiles within a ten mile radius is welcome to try their luck."

Abigail thought about that. Usually the only people forced to come were those who were on the verge of snapping and killing everyone in a rampage. And if they were allowed to keep their weapons... Yeah, she wouldn't be stupid enough to attack this place either. Blade might, if it were full of vampires, but she wouldn't.

Abigail went to her bungalow and checked the door to see if it was unlocked. It was.

She heard the shower running and knew her roommate was already there. She tossed her bag onto the bed and noticed the privacy curtain wasn't up yet. Hearing the water turn off, she palmed her gun just in case she ended up with a total asshole.

The door opened and she turned.

"Shower's free... Abigail?" said Adrian.

"Adrian?!" she said in shock.

Okay, now the high-five made a hell of a lot more sense...and why Clint had been the one to sign her up.

She had heard rumors that Adrian had been rather stressed to the point he had become a liability around the base. She didn't think it was true though.

"What are you doing here?" asked Adrian.

She noticed he was only in a pair of pants, and that he had definitely toned up since the last time she saw him. He had been a bit of a weed before he went on a long term assignment, and now he looked like some sort of body builder who ran a lot.

"Hawk signed me up. Though I should have known he had other plans in mind when I saw him with your mother."

"Mom drugged me and shipped me here. Apparently she and Fury think I need to find a way to relax before I blow something up," said Adrian irritated.

"So...you're my roommate for the entire month? At least I won't have to threaten to kill you like I was planning. Your mom was really good at showing me how to display an intent to kill on idiots," said Abigail.

"I know. So...do you want the privacy curtain up or not? I only asked for it in the event I ended up with Phil or worse."

"I'm fine," said Abigail.

With the privacy curtain up, she wouldn't be able to ogle Adrian.

Her vacation was looking up.


	11. Chapter 11

Abigail was having fun. So what if she had to take classes and a test? She breezed through that thing on the first day and got to enjoy her vacation.

She had a beach, free drinks, good food and a hottie to ogle at night. She was enjoying this.

"Falcon? Call for you from the shore," said one of the waiters.

"I thought calls weren't allowed?"

"No calls until after you pass the test," he corrected. "You've already passed it with a high score."

"Where's the phone?"

"Video chat is over by the main desk," he answered.

Abby got up and went to see who was calling.

"Falcon here."

"_Hey Abby. Enjoying your vacation?" _asked Clint.

"It's great...though I wish you would have warned me that you gave me the same room as Adrian."

"_Nat's idea. She said that she would prefer it if Andy got a girlfriend and out of all the people she knew you were the first person she thought of. Apparently he's forgetting a lot of stuff lately and has been really stressed out."_

Abigail blinked.

"What do you mean, girlfriend?"

"_Andy blew her cover early. And he's been going without sleep or even basic things like eating or drinking. She said she might have Loki bind his magic for a month if he doesn't snap out of it soon,"_ said Clint.

"_Adrian_ blew his mother's cover?!" said Abigail in shock. Adrian was Natasha's son in all but blood. She had trained him since he was a child and he was practically her apprentice. If he was so stressed that he actually blew her cover during a mission, then he really did need something to relax him.

"_Like I said, you were Nat's first choice. She trusts you."_

Abigail looked pensive.

He was a seriously hot, and she knew he wasn't a total asshole like the last guy she dated. Plus there was the fact he was only two years younger than she was. And he wouldn't be turned off by the fact she hunted vampires for fun.

"Alright, I'll give it a shot. But she owes me for this," said Abigail.

"_Why do you think Fury gave the okay for you to go on the retreat when you've only been an agent for three years? Most people have to work for this place for ten before they're even considered,"_ said Clint.

Abigail hung up shortly after that. So that was why she had been given permission to come here. She had wondered why a junior agent like her had earned a spot when normally only agents like Phil Coulson could get in without really screwing the pooch first.

Still... Adrian was a better catch than half the guys she ended up with.

* * *

Adrian breezed through most of the online classes within the first two days before Abigail borrowed the laptop to finish her courses. He didn't see it again.

He tried relaxing on the beach, but he couldn't stay still for some reason. Something always niggled at the edge of his head.

Then on the fourth day he came back to the room to find a surprising sight.

Abigail was still in her bikini with a sarong around her waist. He blinked, and wondered if it was a bad idea to stare at her. Seeing her walk out to the beach with a bit of sway in her hips, he shook his head.

What the hell just happened? And why did he have the feeling his mother was behind this?

* * *

Abigail got a second call, this time from Natasha herself.

And the news surprised her a bit.

"Adrian's never had a girlfriend?" she said in disbelief.

"_Not one. Loki even mentioned he never went out with any of the other warriors except when Thor dragged him. He was always more interested in staying out of the way."_

"Well I do know he isn't gay at least. Not with the way he was staring at my ass when I left earlier," said Abigail thoughtfully.

"_Have fun,"_ said Natasha.

Abigail couldn't believe that Adrian had never been laid before. Though that did explain why he was having trouble picking up on some of the signals she was giving him.

This would be fun.

* * *

Phil was having a _lot_ of fun watching Adrian's obliviousness to Abigail's flirting. This was hilarious. He could see Natasha's hand in this, and it was a good way to get Adrian to calm down without him going on a killing spree.

Plus it was fun to watch.

* * *

Abigail had enough of Adrian's clueless nature. So she decided to do the tried and true method...she got him drunk.

Adrian woke up with a hangover and no idea what the hell happened. At least not until he realized he was sharing a bed with Abigail sans clothes.

_'Abby is going to kill me...'_ he thought.

"Morning," she yawned.

"Morning," he said, with a hint of nervousness.

"It's about time you figured it out," she said rolling over.

_'Figured it out... Why do I have a feeling this was her real plan?'_ wondered Adrian before he decided he was so not getting up right now and curling up next to Abigail without realizing it.

He could worry about her kicking his ass later. He needed sleep more than he needed to freak out.

* * *

Adrian finished the last course to get re-certified as a medi-wizard and he planned to take the exam tomorrow. Abigail was finishing up a swim, and he still couldn't believe that he had landed his first girlfriend...though to be fair it was more along the lines of Abigail taking control and slapping him over the head with the truth.

Hey, he could be excused for not picking up on half the signals she had given off. He never had anyone to interest him before! Hell, he never had a _girlfriend_ before!

At least she wasn't a red head. It would have been weird if she had been, with how much she reminded him of his mother.

Adrian looked outside and decided he had enough of sitting at the computer for today. He could use a swim himself. He tossed off his shirt and grabbed his swim trunks.

Abigail winked at him from the surf and he grabbed a board. One of the perks about being the son of the Widow was that he had impeccable balance...surfing was nothing compared to having to dodge bean bags on a tight rope five feet above the ground while your hands were tied behind your back. It took him two years to get that trick down, but ever since it took more than unstable ground to make him lose his footing.

It also meant he could go surfing and not fall flat on his ass. Too bad his mother rarely took jobs close to a nice beach growing up.

The two had quite a bit of fun and Adrian felt the tenseness in his body relaxing as he quit caring about hiding and missions. He was on vacation and he fully planned to enjoy it!

* * *

Natasha answered the video phone.

"Phil?"

"_The plan to get the Falcon and the Crow together worked like a charm. He's actually acting his age for once,"_ said Coulson. _"So do you have any idea what the hell Crow has in mind for my birthday?"_

"I do, and trust me you'll love it. No way am I spoiling his surprise."

"_Please tell me it doesn't involve strippers or something like that,"_ said Phil with a long suffering tone.

Natasha laughed openly. She wouldn't put it past Adrian to do something like that, but even she had to admit the presents her son got Phil were in much better taste.

"So is he still a danger?"

"_I think as long as we keep him paired with Falcon until he levels out, there shouldn't be a problem. From what little I've seen of him and Falcon during the accuracy seminar, they work just as well as you and Barton do."_

"That will make Fury happy. Instead of one effective team, he'll have two. I doubt he'll complain about a magical version of me and Clint,"said Natasha.

Abigail Whistler was a Salem graduate, a first-gen witch. That had been a pleasant surprise for Natasha to find out, especially since her birth family didn't have anything against first-gens like they did in Europe. So long as the girl had magical blood, wasn't insane and could handle herself, they wouldn't say a word.

Phil hung up, but Natasha was pleased. She actually liked Whistler and felt that the girl would be good for Adrian. Even if they split up, they would at least stay friends which was a good thing.

* * *

"Next up on the list... Romanov, Adrian. Codename: Crow. Known specialties are hacking, magical combat, magical and mundane healing, poisons, extreme accuracy, unusual weapon combat, assassination, deep cover infiltration, Beast tongue, and hand-to-hand. Reasons for retraining: recklessness, abnormally high stress levels, inability to remember to take time off, and breaking protocol. Do the examiners have anything to add?" asked the same woman who had greeted Adrian when he arrived. She was cold, clinical and utterly professional.

"_Romanov, according to this your broke Widow's cover before she had been found out. Care to explain?"_

"I had just returned from a two-year long deep cover mission in a place where I would be killed if they discovered I was lying. It was the first time I was given such an assignment and my problems were only piled on the moment I got back because it was cut short due to unforeseen circumstances. I suppose stress got the better of me at the time," said Adrian honestly.

"_Do we have your assurances that this particular breech of protocol will not happen in the future?"_

"I can't promise that I won't breech protocol again. But I can say that I will do everything to avoid having another break down like that for the foreseeable future," said Adrian flatly.

"_We have your word? Very well. However should a repeat of such action occur you will be taken off active duty and moved back into support,"_ said the examiner. The shadow looked at the woman. _"We may proceed."_

* * *

"Well?" asked Abigail.

"Full marks," said Adrian.

"Obviously, but I meant what did they have to say about your nervous breakdown?"

"I got a slap on the wrist and they said if it happened any time in the near future I would be forced back into a support role instead of active duty. The fact this is my first major offense helped, as did the fact that I had just come off my first real deep-cover mission."

"They're also docking his pay in half," said a voice.

"Phil! Figured you would be listening in."

"I got news from Fury. He's heard about your new girlfriend and he's assigning the two of you on a new mission once you leave."

"England, right?" asked Adrian.

"You get a full team and you can call in Blade, since we've heard that a good portion of the magical covens are in on this mess. If you do a good job chances are the two of you might be partnered for the next year or so."

"Blade's going to be happy. The hunting's gone down since we started getting hot tips from S.H.I.E.L.D. to known vampire locations and support teams," said Abigail.

The vampires had been horrified to find out Blade had a real team of people they couldn't infiltrate or buy off. And to make matter worse these were all well-trained and armed with a special poison concocted by the Black Widow herself that made drinking the agents blood very undesirable indeed.

Blade himself had quit taking his infamous serum, finding it much easier to simply pop in one of the blood pills instead.

All the benefits of drinking blood without the nasty backlash of the serum to deal with. It was like taking medicine without tasting it.

The vampires Blade hunted would never have considered this sort of solution, let alone willingly consent to finding a way around the thirst which drove them.

"So who can I take with me?"

"Anyone from the T.A.R.D.I.S. division, Steve Rogers, a small group from the support division and any of the hunters you can scrounge up. Though we're not paying the hunters," said Phil.

"Wait, I can bring Captain America with me?"

"According to our records he's been to this Hogwarts school during the war against HYDRA. He also has a contact in there."

"And the fact he needs something to do since he was woken up from the ice?"

"Bonus. This is something Fury felt he would agree to once he's asked."

Well that and Rogers had been rather listless since they woke him up. He felt so out of touch that this mission would be perfect for him, especially with how backwards the European magicals were.

Adrian left the island with a tan, a new girlfriend, and a mission that was unfortunately suited for him. He hated Europe and had no desire to return.

Particularly since he had to leave Earth just to get out of a marriage contract he wanted no part of.

It was time to assemble his team and start the counterattack against these...Death Eaters.

* * *

"_Welcome back, Adrian,"_ greeted his grandmother. Natasha's mother had been very pleased to meet her grandson, even if he was adopted.

"_I'm back, Grandmother,"_ said Adrian with a proper bow.

"_I hear that you plan to clean out Europe of the trash,"_ she said.

"_I have been asked to do so, seeing as how they do not wish this nuisance to spill over to the other continents," _he replied.

"_I take it that you wish to bring in some of ours?"_

"_Are you telling me there aren't any young, cocky young men eager to prove themselves who wouldn't mind being allowed to blow things up without getting into trouble for it?"_ asked Adrian raising a single eyebrow.

His grandmother laughed at that.

"_And who is this lovely young lady?"_

"_Abigail Whistler, ma'am,"_ said Abby politely.

"_Whistler. Are you any chance related to Whistler the vampire hunter? The one who taught the damphir known as Blade?"_

"_He was my father."_

"_A brave and wise man. Very few hunters would take in a half-vampire like Blade and raise them as family as willingly as he did,"_ she said approvingly.

Abigail felt a surge of pride. She never expected that the magicals had known her father, let alone liked him for saving Blade.

"_I almost forgot that the Romani traded with the magical covens...or that the ones Blade tends to hunt are considered worse than the Death Eaters,"_ said Adrian.

Abigail looked at her boyfriend.

"_Magical vampires hate the normal ones?"_

"_The vampires Blade hunts are like children compared to the Covens. The magical variety considered the majority of them to be brash, uncouth and generally trashy. It's easier to leave the area until the hunters pass than to challenge them like the normal ones do, or better yet set up an arrangement for donated blood. How many vampires can you think of that would consider using a pill form of blood rather than drink it directly and turn countless people in the process?"_

"_Not many, if any,"_ she replied.

"_The magical covens knew that humans weren't going to go away, and if they were found would retaliate violently once they were discovered. Finding new ways to blend in like making those blood pills Blade's been using was a more cost efficient and long term strategy instead of trying to replace the humans like the normals are doing."_

"_Coexistence rather than domination."_

"_Precisely. The Romani believe that it's a better idea to coexist now rather than attempt to dominate the average human. History is littered with such attempts and they have not only failed, but they have ended rather badly for the ones doing the dominating."_

"_There's always a bigger fish,"_ quoted Abby.

"_You are free to bring some of our brash young idiots with you... just please, do try to bring them back alive? They are family after all,"_ she said pleasantly.

Adrian blinked before he laughed openly. There was a reason he liked his grandmother on Earth.


	12. Chapter 12

"It's been a while Captain," said Adrian from the door.

Steve blinked and looked at the doorway. The voice was somewhat familiar, but it was more mature now and the kid he remembered was much scrawnier.

"Dr. Andy?"

"It's Adrian, or Crow if you have to call me something. Fury's asked me to clean out Europe of a particular nuisance calling themselves Death Eaters...and I see you've heard of them."

"Minnie owled me a few weeks after I woke up asking for help. She heard from one of her lions that I was back and able to fight. She said it had gotten really bad," said Steve.

"I heard you had contacts in the Magical Europe. Here's the deal... Fury said that I could bring you in on this mission since you've been there previously. A way to break the ice and get back in the game, as it were."

"What sort of support do we have?"

"Have you heard of the vampire hunter called Blade?"

"A hybrid who specializes in sword combat. What of him?"

"A few covens have overstepped their mark, so I'm bringing him in as well. We'll also have a full load of weapons, at least three fully trained magical agents, and a doctor on hand during every mission with an overstocked medicine kit for anything we encounter. Oh, and in the event of werewolves I've got a bit of a surprise for them," said Adrian with an evil grin.

"You got re-certified recently, didn't you?" asked Steve.

"Yup."

"So what's the surprise?"

"Are you aware that the Packs all worship Loki and Fenrir like gods? And that they pay tribute to the 'great wolf' every time they convene?" he asked.

"So?"

"So I happen to be in contact with someone who knows which realm Fenrir is on, and wouldn't mind letting him out on Earth just to give them a good scare. He's a big puppy, really, with a tendency to chase things he shouldn't and drool over everything. Can you imagine what Greyback would do when he's confronted by his namesake?" said Adrian smirking.

Steve almost felt sorry for the werewolf packs. Almost.

* * *

Adrian got off the plane he had been assigned by Fury (along with the words that if he destroyed it then Adrian was going to pay for the replacement and all the equipment on it) and doublechecked his gear.

They were supposed to be greeted by one of this so-called Order of the Phoenix, the only group to even bother trying to fight back. After their leader was killed and their main base raided, the fight just seemed to leave them. Learning that their poster boy was a fake had dealt an even worse blow.

Adrian swept his eyes around the tarmac, only to come up short. He cast a quick spell to check the area, and again, nothing. Not even a cheap disillusionment charm or a tacky invisibility cloak.

He heard a crack, and someone came from around a warehouse. He palmed one of his upgraded battle fans into his left hand.

A werewolf. These idiots sent a werewolf to greet them? Did they not know that nearly every man and woman on the plane would be armed to the teeth with at least one silver weapon?

"Sorry I'm late. Had to confirm that there wasn't anyone waiting to ambush us," said the werewolf, "I'm Remus Lupin."

"One of Greyback's victims as a I recall. Don't look so alarmed Mr. Lupin, none of us on this craft have any prejudice against werewolves... now if you were a vampire on the other hand you might have to watch your step around Erik, but..." said Adrian.

"I take it that you are Agent Crow?"

"Son of the Widow and known pain-in-the-ass. Now, do we head straight for your current base or should we convene on the plane ride?"

Lupin blinked, unsure of what he meant.

"This particular craft was outfitted and enchanted with runes so that it won't react negatively to spells. If I have a base to work with, I would prefer not to leave it unguarded or open to attack when I can simply shrink it and keep it on the move," Adrian clarified.

Loki had been intrigued by the idea and had helped find the cause of the magic/technology issues they had. Apparently magic tended to overload or fry the technological aspects like some sort of EMP... they just needed to shield that specific frequency like they did on Asgard.

Adrian's division was already retrofitting a lot of their projects with the new wavelength so that they could be a lot more efficient.

"Our base is classified," said Remus.

"Not really. Minnie has told Steve the general location, and it would be simple for us to fly there. It's not like these idiots you're dealing with can track us with the retro-reflective panels we're testing out," said Adrian.

"Minnie?"

"Steve's contact. She's one of the people who asked us to come help, and has been keeping Sub-director Smith informed of the problems you've been having from this dark lord of yours."

Remus blinked.

"You look like you need a stiff drink."

Adrian ushered him in, and Remus nearly bolted when he saw Blade.

"What is he doing here?" he asked in horror.

"Erik agreed to help when we asked if he wanted to put the fear of himself back into the covens. He's been getting restless apparently," said Adrian dryly.

Remus looked at Blade with no small amount of nervousness. Mostly because he was fully aware that the man used a very sharp silver katana.

Adrian found it hilarious that the hunter called Blade was considered the devil or the boogeyman among the vampires. They used tales of him to scare their children into behaving.

It took them ten minutes to find the current base for the Order, and two to get everyone out and shrink the plane so that it could be put into one of Adrian's pockets. Remus was staring at him oddly.

"Where's your wand?" he asked.

Adrian snorted.

"In Russia we break our wands once we complete our training in whatever field of magic we study. I broke the one I was using at the time when I was sixteen, and then went to study how to forge my own weapons for the rest of the year. The only conduit I use is a staff that's outfitted with a blade. Much more effective."

It was actually his original wand from Loki that was made of Yggdrasil wood and fur from Fenrir and scales of Jörmungandr that was expanded into a staff. He broke the wand he had bought in Britain during his time there during his 'graduation' ceremony.

He never did like using that holly and phoenix wand anyway.

Remus choked.

"You're Russian?"

Adrian turned to face him.

"You have a problem with Russia?" he asked.

"It's just half of the Death Eaters recently have been Russian," said Remus.

"Huh. So they got in," said Adrian.

"They?"

"Some of the more violent members of the family. They didn't want to listen to me so I told them they either behaved or they acted as informants. Since it's highly unlikely that the Death Eaters will think to translate a text message written in Russian, not that they could, we have a good source of inside info. Of course these ones I sent in were the dregs, those who have to prove they are still worthy of bearing the family crest before they embarrassed us," said Adrian with a wave of his hand.

"That's rather cold. Aren't they your family?"

"Only by adoption, and besides, we're a rather large Russian clan. So big in fact that there's a branch of it in Rome. If we avenged every young idiot who did something stupid, then the bloodshed would never end. Better they do something useful before they get themselves killed," said Adrian flatly.

There was a reason why the Romani clan never complained about the fact Natasha was a known international assassin. They just didn't care. She was but one girl in a family of hundreds. If she got herself killed in such a profession, it wasn't their problem unless she did something to damage the Romani name.

It was part of the reasons why Natasha still spoke to them. And where some of her attitude towards regimes came from. If S.H.I.E.L.D. fell today she wouldn't cry a single tear so long as Clint and Adrian were fine.

"Get in! Do you want the Death Eaters to find us?!" barked Moody, a retired Auror even Adrian had heard of.

"Stuff it. Do you really think that these imbeciles you're dealing with have enough brains between them to hide from a thermal scan of the area? The only ones in a ten mile radius, if that, are you and this little group. Russians would never dare do something as foolish like playing at war," said Adrian flatly with a cold glare. Moody met his eyes and was the one to look away, a glimmer of respect in his one eye.

He liked this kid.

Adrian and his small group walked into the base, and almost immediately the wizards and witches had their wands aimed at them.

"For Valhalla's sake, pack it in! What is with you Europeans and this blasted stick fascination of yours?" he demanded in a Russian accent. That didn't make many drop their wands. Some of them got rather twitchy.

"Steve!" said a voice from the back. It was feminine, old, and had a Scottish lilt.

"Minnie!" said Steve, hugging the woman openly, to the shock of everyone present.

"So this is the woman you've been chatting with? Dr. Adrian Romanov, also called Agent Crow. We're here to deal with this pest problem of yours, since your people seem to have trouble killing despite all the things they've done," said Adrian flatly.

"Doctor?" spoke another. This was much younger, but still female. Adrian found a bushy haired brunette.

"Crow is our medi-wizard as well as our leader in this mission," said Abigail.

"Nonsense! No medi-wizard is under the age of thirty!" said a plump red-haired woman.

"First off, that only applies to medical wizards in _Europe_. In the REAL world if you have the intelligence and ability, not to mention the gold to pay for it, it doesn't matter how young you are. Secondly only an idiot would ignore the original purpose of a time-turner," said Adrian flatly.

"The original purpose of a time-turner?" asked the brunette.

"People who didn't want to spend too much time studying or take too much time getting their work done. It took them five years to find out how to do it, and another three to stabilize the original mixture. It then took them four years to get it funded into mass production. Russians tend to be rather pragmatic when it comes to new things."

Seeing the looks on their faces, it was clear where they though the time-turners originated. Bloody British.

"So. Where are there bases and when do they tend to congregate there?" asked Adrian. He wanted to end this as fast as possible.

Moody snorted, before he listed the known bases. Blade perked up at the mention of the ones inhabited by the covens. However all this stress was causing his Thirst to act up, so he popped in one of his blood pills.

So much easier than his old serum.

One of the wizards noticed the pill and had his wand out.

"You let a vampire in?" he said wide-eyed.

"For the love of Valhalla, are you really that dense? It seems we brought you in not a moment too soon Blade, if they don't even recognize you on sight," said Adrian.

"This is Blade, the hunter?" said Moody sharply. He had somewhat recognized him, but it had been rather dark.

"Just point me at the covens. By the time I'm through with them, they'll be leaving Europe in droves," said Blade with a cold smirk.

"Who or what is Blade?" demanded the brunette.

"Blade, the half-vampire hunter. He is someone who had the unfortunately luck of nearly being turned into a 'mundane' vampire shortly before he was born, but his mother was so close to term that it was never completed. As a result he became a hybrid who hunts other vampires to...repay...them for the attack on his mother. I called him in because he was bored and I heard that several of the covens had been getting above their stations, so to speak," said Adrian.

* * *

Snape, the only known spy in the Death Eater ranks, first meeting with Adrian could have gone better. Much, much better.

He saw Abigail practicing her forms alone, and made a snide comment about muggleborns within her hearing, unaware that Adrian had walked in for their daily sparring match.

Part of their partnership meant that Abigail got her exercise in by sparring with Adrian and improving her forms. Adrian didn't tolerate people badmouthing his family, friends and most especially not his girlfriend.

So he broke the man's arm without caring what the wizards thought about it. A quick silencing charm kept him from alerting them to the fact Adrian had taken offense to his comment.

Moody smirked when he saw Snape's arm and the fact he was spelled so he couldn't scream from the pain.

"I see you've meet our new reinforcements," said Moody. Snape glared at him.

Snape was glaring at Adrian with pure hate in his eyes.

"Next time you insult girlfriend, I'll do more than break your arm and make it impossible for to scream for help," said Adrian flatly, his Russian accent very thick. They had to get someone else to fix Snape's arm.

"Who the hell is this brat?" demanded Snape.

"Adrian Romanov, son of Black Widow. Ah, I see you've heard of my mother."

"You called in the son of that woman?!" said Snape in horror.

"Definitely heard of my mother. If you insult Abby again, I'll show you exactly how much I've learned from her," said Adrian chuckling.

Snape paled even more. He almost looked like a vampire, but Blade wasn't getting antsy around him so that meant he was just a shut-in.

"What exactly did he say to make you break his arm?" asked Granger, the bushy-haired girl.

"He called her a mudblood, and while you lot seem to have forgotten the origin of that particular term, I sure as Helheim haven't," said Adrian flatly.

"Anyone with eyes can tell she's a muggleborn!" snarled Snape.

"She's a first-gen, which is the _proper_ term used in civilized countries. Only you idiot Brits seem insistent on using those ridiculous made up words. And maybe if you weren't so caught up in this bloody purity crap, you Brits might be respected outside of your little country again! Hogwarts is considered one of the _worst_ magicals schools to graduate from! You get laughed out of any decent jobs once you leave Europe!"

"What do you mean the worst?" hissed Granger.

"It's so outdated and tied up in your little 'house' system that it fails to educate the students properly, the dungeons alone are a health hazard since there's no decent insulation and from what I've heard of your menu, it's geared straight towards a full-on heart attack since the only sport played is Quidditch, which has only a small number of people playing and the fans are quite rabid."

Hearing him tear down their school made quite a few of them bristle in anger.

"And don't get me started on the classes there. The only decent ones are Transfiguration, Charms, and surprisingly enough Potions. Though the number of potionmasters and healers coming out have dropped like a stone in recent decades," said Adrian.

Minerva perked up at hearing her class was one of the few ones he approved of. Somehow she didn't think he said that to cater to her ego though.

"Now, what exactly is his purpose?"

"He's our spy," said Moody bluntly.

"Double agent? From what I've heard from the others, he's either not a very good spy or you people haven't been reacting appropriately to the threat level these inbred morons present."

"More like both," muttered Moody.


	13. Chapter 13

A week into the mission, and Adrian got a hot tip about a big Death Eater meeting. A hundred people, at least thirteen vampires and twenty werewolves. Rumor had it that Greyback was going to be present, and Adrian was really, really hoping that one was true.

Remus still didn't know why Adrian was going to bring him in on the first mission that they knew Greyback was going to be there. Something about giving the old wolf a taste of his own medicine.

Loki had already promised to give Fenrir a bit of a talk about who he was allowed to eat and who he was to leave alone. Adrian had definitely inherited his father's sense of humor.

So he made plans. There was no way he was sitting on this information like the Order had until now.

He called in a small group that he felt he could trust to a point, and outlined his plan.

"Here's the deal. I got a reliable tip from one of my cousins that there's going to be a scheduled meeting with both vampires and werewolves in two days. Now we're going to hit them hard and fast, and not give them any time to fight back. If it looks too risky for a frontal assault, I'll dose the place with the Kiss and we'll do a quick and dirty assassination mission. I would prefer to avoid it, but the lives of the team are more important than the lives of the idiots who serve these people."

Remus couldn't help but be struck by the sheer difference of Adrian's plan to the one Dumbledore tended to use.

Dumbledore was all about saving as many lives as possible, and not caring about losing people in the process. He practically believed these people could be redeemed.

But Remus knew all-too-well that they didn't want to be redeemed or given a second chance. For every Death Eater they stunned another revived them and they continued to slaughter the Order.

Adrian was more concerned about ending this in a permanent manner than trying to redeem heartless criminals.

Remus preferred the change. If Dumbledore hadn't been such a damn pacifist, James and Lily would still be alive. And his cub, Hadrian, wouldn't be missing.

Sirius never really took the news that Hadrian had gone missing mere hours after the deaths of their friends well, or that no one had seen him since aside from the goblins...and they weren't talking. Not even a large bribe of gold would persuade them to part with the information.

"First we need to see what we're dealing with. And if anyone sees Greyback they had better tell me so I can prepare my little...surprise for him."

"What is this surprise?" Remus had to ask.

Adrian's sudden smirk did not inspire his confidence.

"Would you like to see first hand?"

"I've seen that smirk before, so I can say with confidence that my curiosity can wait until you bring it out on Greyback," said Remus dryly. The last time he saw that particular smirk, James had lead them into a knicker raid on the Puffs and they got their arses kicked and hexed until New Years.

Remus would later go over that moment in his mind and shake his head at the odd thought that came to him. What were the odds that Adrian was really his missing pup?

"Now, if there are vampires in there, Abigail and Blade will lead that team in. Werewolves will be dealt with Remus' team. I'll lead the first wave and Steve will lead the second should it come to that. If we have to dose the house, then he will be in charge of any victims we find inside."

"What exactly is this Kiss?" asked one of the wizards... Sirius, if Adrian remembered right.

"The Widow's Kiss. One of the Black Widow's most infamous weapons. Once you breath it in, often you never wake up from it," said Moody.

"I have the lethal strain, but I've never used it. There's always a chance someone will have a strong enough immunity to poisons that they can survive, so I prefer the other variety. It's messier, but more efficient."

Not to mention that he could walk through the house before the Kiss had dissipated and not have to worry about the effects.

"Is there anything else we should be aware of? Any possibility that this so called Dark Lord will show up?"

"It's a minor meeting. The odds of him being there are next to none," said Remus.

"But still a possibility."

"Yes. Not likely though."

"You have your assignments. If you have some artifact or potion you need time to prepare, get it done now. If need something, make sure it's ready at least three hours before we hit this place. If you can't go because it's missing, I will leave you behind," said Adrian.

* * *

Two hours before the mission, Adrian dropped a bombshell on them.

Because he was properly wary of a leak from the Order, he was increasing the amount of gear they would take among his group. The wizards wouldn't be aware that they were bringing enough for a full-scale assault once Adrian hit the base with the Kiss.

This was a safety measure in the event that Voldemort was in fact present or they knew an attack was imminent. Since this wasn't a meeting for any of the inner circle, I/E Snape, Adrian had deliberately kept him out of the loop.

A double agent could be useful, but Adrian didn't trust him at all. So if he had the chance to keep information that could be used against them from being handed to the man, he would do it in a heartbeat.

It took them fifteen minutes to find the base, and Adrian had a thermal imaging taken of the house.

So far, the information seemed to be solid. A second pass, however, revealed that there was a higher number of people inside the house.

Adrian wanted to scope the place first to see what exactly was waiting for them, so he sent in a crow to scout the windows. Kara remained firmly on his shoulder to relay the information.

* * *

"Well?" asked Steve.

"Good news, the information on the attendees was solid. Roughly over a hundred in there and twenty vampires. There's also at least a half pack of werewolves, but it seems the information on Greyback was just a rumor. We could do a wait and see just in case he shows up, but at this point I'm not going to hold my breath. Bad news, there's at least fifteen hostages, and one of them has already been bitten by a vamp from the looks of it. Blade, I'll leave it up to you on whether that one lives or not," said Adrian.

Steve frowned. He didn't like it, but if killing a victim now meant one less enemy later he would deal with the consequences. Blade was a senior vampire hunter. If they could reverse the damage, then he would know.

"_Crow, this is Falcon. We got movement in the treeline. Looks like a few more werewolves are joining the party."_

"Copy that Falcon. Moony, do you recognize any of them?"

"_This is Moony... one of them looks like Greyback but in this lighting I couldn't be sure. And I'm not about to go downwind just to check,"_ said Remus.

Adrian had positioned a good chunk of his troops upwind of the house, mostly because he was wary of the werewolves inside.

"Hold your position...I'm sending in an aerial to see if it is Greyback."

Adrian softly cawed to Kara, who relayed it to the crow. It flew off the branch and did a once over of the werewolves.

"Damn. I was really hoping he would show up too. Oh well. This is Crow, it seems that the information was flawed about Greyback... one of his pack is here, but it's his Beta," said Adrian.

"_Copy that Crow. When do we strike?" _asked Remus.

"Give them some time to get into the house. Captain, do you think we should dose the place, or is a strike team still a good option?"

"I don't fancy going up against that many werewolves, and we have to consider the hostages. Does the Kiss work on these magical vampires?"

"It's a lot weaker and they'll be rather sluggish. The werewolves will be hit worse though, because of their heightened smell. I got it... Falcon, Blade, we're going to dose the place first. Once the two minute mark hits, your team will go in first to deal with the vamps. Check to see if it's possible to save that victim, if not stake 'em. Moony, Padfoot, I want your group to put the werewolves into the cages if they have them. If not, use the silver blades we gave you to kill them. I don't want any of them getting back up and biting one of us. I'll go in with the cleaners and capture some of these idiots for interrogation while Captain gets the hostages to the plane under quarantine. We'll save as many as we can, but I'm not risking my teams because of bad information," said Adrian.

"_How are you going to get the Kiss to the house without exposing yourselves?"_ asked Sirius.

"You'll find out later. For now everyone get out of the wind's path... I don't have any antidote for the Kiss on me if you accidentally get a whiff of it. Though the bubblehead charm might slow the effects long enough to get out of the way," said Adrian.

Once everyone had that charm in place, Adrian drew out one of his battle fans and channeled his magic to expand it to half his height. The four Kiss capsules (two on each side) were locked and loaded. Adrian left the cover, and began to hit the house with the winds generated by the fan, loaded with the Kiss. It was similar to the anime _Naruto_ that Adrian had found recently, at least in terms of wind power.

The Death Eaters and their victims all got a good hit with the paralytic agents in the Kiss, and most dropped to the floor out cold. The vampires were still somewhat active, but their responses would be sluggish and Adrian wasn't giving them time to get over it by biting the victims inside.

"Falcon, you have a go!" said Adrian through the radio, and a few seconds later there was the sound of doors being broken. He could hear the vampires screaming in fear once they recognized the silver katana Blade used, or perhaps the hunter himself.

"Moony, Padfoot, your team is up next."

Remus and Sirius went in with their group and when they found cages they started throwing the werewolves in. Remus had asked why he was being so lenient on the werewolves and not the vampires on the way there, and he had gotten a smile full of teeth as Adrian had replied "What makes you think I'm being lenient? I have plans for the werewolves and it involves sending a message."

Adrian was going to toss any captive werewolves to his brother Fenrir for a snack. If any survived long enough to reach Hel, then she would dump them back on Voldemort to spread word of a great wolf to Greyback. If not, well he would still have some fun with them.

He was so waiting to see the look on that feral wolf's face when he realized exactly what he was facing.

Adrian and his group went in and started zip-tying the Death Eaters...except when he got a known list of their crimes. Some of them didn't deserve to live and he had no patience for people who targeted children.

Steve was checking the victims. And he was not happy.

"Adrian, we need some healing over here!"

Adrian came and checked the fifteen he had seen from the window...and automatically updated that list to eighteen because three were pregnant. His face was as cold as a Russian winter and just as pleasant.

He was pissed.

"Get the worst to the infirmary. Moony, Padfoot, which one of these would have a location of known bases we can hit within a few days?"

"Let's see... Montague, MacNair and Higgs. The rest are relatively new... I think this was a warm-up for them for something later," said Sirius.

"Right. You take the three to the interrogation cells. Find out how recent their marks are. If they're fairly new then I might be lenient. If not, well I won't lose any sleep over their deaths," said Adrian coldly.

Seeing the looks on the wizard's faces, Adrian gave them a harsh glare.

"Russians do not play at war. And you are at war here. If you cannot stomach killing others, then you should probably avoid any more missions," said Adrian.

Sirius snorted.

"I quit caring over whether these bastards lived or died when they killed my best friend. Any tips on how to do it fast?" asked Sirius.

Adrian liked him already. He showed Sirius how to make a clean cut with one of the silver knives across the neck, and the man got to work. The others Adrian had slotted for interrogation were tossed into the cells with only their boxers, and even then they were hit with so many anti-transport and suicide spells that these fools would only wish they had died when Adrian was done with them.

* * *

The Order was running around like headless chickens when they returned. Apparently Voldemort had heard about the raid and he had been pissed. Since the Ministry was riddled with Death Eaters, when Adrian was done with his prisoners he made an...example of them.

Those that were interrogated had their heads removes and a crow branded into their chests along with a message in olde English.

_'Those that serve Flight From Death shall pay the price of their arrogance.'_

Molly Weasly, the overbearing mother hen of the Order, was furious. She was a die-hard Dumbledore supporter, even after his death and she was uncomfortable with the idea of killing. However Adrian just hit her with a silencing spell whenever she looked about ready for a rant, giving everyone blessed relief from her strident voice.

He was still going to avoid her daughter like the plague though. The last thing he wanted was for her magic to try and latch onto his to complete the contract he had left Earth to be rid of.


	14. Chapter 14

A month after Adrian had been sent to England, they had six different raids. Two of them had been lead solely by Steve because the number of hostages had been larger than the number of Death Eaters.

Then came the defining moment for Adrian's presence.

Voldemort was not above dirty tricks. He had his people go into Diagon and hold a store full of children hostage.

What the Order was unaware of was that the children were mostly members of the Death Eater's family. But Adrian decided to go in alone. It was time to show these...people...that the Black Widow's son was not to be trifled with.

* * *

Adrian was inside the store, and he was doing something most wizards wouldn't have had the whit to do in his position.

He was observing.

And he knew without being told that this was a set-up for the Order.

The children were far too calm to be real hostages, and most of them shared similar features to the 'captors'. Adrian hid a smirk under his cut lip and bruised cheek.

So they thought that he was going to let his team walk into an obvious trap? Not likely.

Adrian palmed a loose rock and subtly flicked it towards the window, causing a loud thump. The Death Eaters fell for it, like he knew they would. Adrian worked loose a small pressure-released capsule of the Kiss, something he always had in his mouth when he went on an infiltration mission. He bit down sharply on the capsule and exhaled hard.

In that enclosed space, the Kiss spread out evenly and Adrian broke through the rope they had tied him up with with ease. He spat a bit of blood out of his mouth.

"Idiots. Still, what more could you expect from Brits?" he said to himself. He pulled out his radio.

"This is Crow. Area inside is secure, but don't harm the children. I would prefer to limit the group to _adult_ casualties," said Adrian into his radio.

"_This is Falcon. Nice work with the capsule...how did you slip it past them?"_

"I'm immune to the thing, remember? Had it spelled to release only when I bit into it hard enough. We'll keep the children alive, but we're still going to dose them with truth serum before we release them to the proper authorities. Voldemort isn't as discriminate as I am about who he kills," said Adrian.

"_Copy that."_

Adrian kicked the nearest shelf...and ended up finding a book by accident when the dust fell off it.

He picked it up.

"_Invisible Book of Invisibility_? What idiot though spelling books on the subject was a good idea? Still, waste not, want not... Sure the family would enjoy a gift like this..." said Adrian before he stole any copy he found.

* * *

Voldemort was pissed. There was no other words for it. Ever since the one called the Crow had started going against him, he kept finding more and more of his minions either dead or more afraid of the man with deep emerald green eyes and heartless demeanor than they were of him.

Snape spread rumors that the boy was the son of the Black Widow, a noted assassin and mercenary. What little he did know was that the boy had the infamous Widow's Kiss in his possession and had an immunity to it's effects. He was ruthless, cunning and someone who had gotten his medi-wizard's license much earlier than anyone in Europe ever could unless they were purebloods.

A pity the boy was so dead-set on acting against him. He would have made a fine second-in-command with that mindset.

* * *

Adrian had a headache, and it was only getting worse the longer the Weasly Matriarch went on about his methods. Finally he snapped.

"For Valhalla's sake woman, shut up! You are not my mother, and I praise Loki you never will be! Has no one ever told you that your voice is grating and migraine worthy?!" yelled Adrian.

Molly puffed up in self-righteous anger.

Everyone was quiet as Adrian drew up to his full almost six feet in height and glared at her.

"I have about had it with you and your voice! I respect that you have been through the first war and have served in the Order for decades, but this is reality. You are so desperate to smother your own children and anyone under thirty that you fail to realize that this is a war. There's no room for that pacifist crap that the fool known as Dumbledore kept preaching on and on about, not if you want to survive and maybe even _win_ with minimal deaths on your side! Every time you try to '_redeem_' (Adrian spat out the word like it was a vile disease) one of theirs you give them all the chance they need to stab you in the back later! You don't like my methods? Well tough. If you hate them so much the door is right there!" barked Adrian.

Molly Weasly glared at him, and his eyes glowed as he glared right back without backing down an inch.

You could literally see lightning crackle over Adrian's skin from his anger, his control slipping.

Finally the irate witch backed down.

"I understand that you lost quite a bit of family during the first round with this dark lord. What you fail to understand was that if you had simply fought against them without stunners and other nonlethal spells, it would have ended a lot sooner. For Loki's sake, the first-gens alone outnumber this idiot's available forces, and most of them might have been happy to rid the world of a few inbred idiots!"

Finally someone broke the stand off. It was Granger.

"There's something I never understood. You're Russian, so why do you keep referencing Scandinavian gods?" she asked. That had confused her.

"My father is Loki. And before you claim that it's impossible, the Aesir are very long lived and he used a surrogate."

"Loki's real?" Sirius perked up.

Adrian smirked. He had been meaning to call in his father for a while now, but first he had to make a clean get away to the outside before they found out the truth.

Adrian called his father...and once Loki arrived he made his way to the outside.

Remus' reaction was instant. His inner werewolf howled in recognition to Loki's presence and he barely resisted the urge to bow.

Sirius looked like someone had given him Christmas early. If only James were here to see this!

"I remember you. James was rather detailed about his exploits with a certain dog-shifter he called Padfoot," said Loki.

Sirius blinked.

"You knew James?"

"Of course I knew him, he and Lily... Where is that little coward?" said Loki looking around.

"Who?"

"Adrian. He called me here and now he's left. Likely to visit his sister if I know him."

"How do you know James and Lily?" asked Remus.

"They agreed to help me with a project in exchange for healing so that Lily could carry a child to term. She was three months pregnant when that fool of a hypocrite killed them and I was forced to relocate my son," said Loki. He looked at McGonagall who had this strange expression on her face...like she had swallowed a lemon.

"You were entirely correct about Lily's sister. The moment I found out that James and Lily were dead and where that old fool had placed my son, I removed him from the neighborhood and insured he found a much better home," said Loki.

It was McGonagall who caught on to what he was saying.

"You know where Harry is," she said in shock.

"Hadrian. And I know perfectly well where he is, considering he's currently hiding from his 'adoring' fans. He left Earth for two years to avoid a marriage contract someone had written up without his consent. Nearly gave me a heart attack when I found him on Asgard."

"Where is he?" asked Sirius eagerly.

"Like I said...the little coward left because he knew I was going to blow his original name out into the open to people he would really rather avoid," said Loki.

"Wait... You mean Adrian is..." said Remus.

"Natasha misread the note I left and dropped the 'H'," said Loki amused.

Sirius and Remus both sat down hard. All this time their pup had been right in front of them and they had never noticed. Finally Remus had to ask "Just what surprise was Adrian planning for Greyback anyway?"

"Oh that. Adrian's none too pleased that such a feral werewolf has been using his brother's name, so he plans to bring his brother Fenrir here to Midgard and have him eat the feral werewolf...so long as the fool isn't diseased anyway."

Remus choked.

"He plans to feed Greyback to Fenrir? _The_ Fenrir?" he said in shock.

"A rather interesting case of irony, don't you agree? A feral wolf bearing the name of your greatest god being killed by the same monster he worships," said Loki.

Sirius snorted in open amusement. That was pretty funny actually.

* * *

"So little brother, what brings you back to my realm?" asked Hel in open amusement.

"I set Loki on the idiots in the Order, and knowing dad he'll tell them about the fact that Lily had been carrying his son. And the last thing I want with this headache is to hear the wizards start making demands of their precious 'boy-who-lived'," said Adrian on the couch.

He had his own room in Helheim, though whenever he got hungry he tended to eat out.

Hel was just glad she had such a friendly visitor who didn't care one whit about the fact she looked like half-decayed corpse and who came back frequently. Fenrir loved the fact Adrian usually came to visit him whenever he was around and would play with him.

"So are you having fun playing the hero?"

"Boring. And how about these idiots I've been sending your way recently?" asked Adrian with a smirk.

"I've been taking out a lot of aggression on them, thanks to you. It's so nice to have fresh victims for the things I come up with for Odin whenever he annoys me," said Hel with a cold smirk.

"Glad to hear it sis. Do you hear a ringing?"

"Father is calling from that device you always carry on you."

"Crow's Palace of Pranks, how may I humiliate you this evening?" said Adrian with a drawl. He heard a bark of laughter in the background.

"_That never gets old,"_ chuckled Loki, _"Now I've explained to Sirius and Remus the circumstances about your true heritage, and while they're shocked that they didn't recognize you they still think of you as their pup. They are willing to at least talk once this mess is over."_

"And how did that wailing banshee take the fact that her 'prospective son-in-law' stood up to her and was so desperate to avoid her daughter that he went off planet?" asked Adrian dryly.

"_She's torn between smothering once you return and telling her daughter to avoid you."_

"Yeah, like that would work. It's only because I already _have_ a girlfriend that the red-haired twit hasn't been hitting on me," said Adrian annoyed.

That and because Abby had nearly skewered Ginerva when she even _tried_ to hit on her boyfriend with her arrows.

If Adrian was defensive about the way people treated his girl, Abigail was very territorial when there were other females around her boyfriend.

Then again with Adrian's looks and his rather large bank account, Abigail had reason to be territorial.

At least Granger had the sense to keep her distance the minute she first saw Abby reach for her gun when it even appeared she would be alone with Adrian. She made a point to have one other member of Adrian's team around to keep the girl pacified when she went to talk to him.

"_Actually I believe your girlfriend has more to do with this Ginerva girl keeping her hands off. According to the bushy girl, Abigail is as territorial as Fenrir when he thinks someone is encroaching on his spot. I approve of her," _said Loki with a grin.

Loki liked girls who had spunk and didn't take shit from anyone. Adrian would swear that his father had a massive crush on Sif, but he was never able to prove it.

"Is it safe for me to return?"

"_Considering the din around here and the fact you had a massive headache earlier...I would say give it a week. I'm fairly certain Rogers can handle a mission if you direct it from a few crows,"_ said Loki.

"Right. Time to take the coward's way out until this blows over," said Adrian.

_'Or until I get that Fidelius Charm up and running about my birth name before I dropped it..._' thought Adrian. No way in Helheim was he going to let this particular secret out!

* * *

_In Asgard..._

Odin, King of Asgard, was troubled. After the revelation that Baelfire, no, Adrian was not the real culprit behind the near theft of the frost giants Casket or the attempt to seize the throne, he realized he had been in error about Loki's youngest son.

Though at least this time Loki had at least learned his lessons in regards to keeping an eye on the child.

Frigga had finally come clean about where his errant son had vanished to shortly after he almost arrested Adrian, and the thought that Loki would rather stand by his son than take the throne was somewhat heartening. Finding out Loki only wanted it to keep his son safe, more so.

Which was why he was going to cast a dream-speak spell and tell Loki something he had kept hidden from him for centuries... Adrian wasn't the only son he had from the 'experiment' he insisted on trying. He was just the most recent.

Odin withheld a sigh. This could either make things worse, or it could open up a whole new slew of problems. Adrian's older brother had sworn before Thor threw him out and destroyed the bifrost that he would locate the Tesseract and gain his 'rightful' place on the throne by force.

He had never been more relieved that the Tesseract itself had been lost for so long that it was highly unlikely it would be found any time soon.


	15. Chapter 15

**Dun, dun dun... Here it is folks, the introduction of Adrian's arch nemesis! Also, I am a bit surprised how many immediately assumed BALDUR was the brother Odin mentioned last chapter. This is a surprise I've been waiting to reveal for days now! :D**

* * *

Adrian found himself in a familiar void. He had returned back to Earth, thankfully _after _the wizards had worn themselves out over the revelation he was in fact the missing Harry Potter (though the fact he was only a Potter by adoption and he had no desire for the titles or gold had come as a nasty shock to them) which had been a serious blow. Then there was the fact that he was Loki's son, something that Sirius was torn between crowing over or feeling incredibly depressed, since it meant that whatever piece of James and Lily he had was now gone.

Adrian had been very quick to cast the Fidelius charm over his birth name, as he had no desire to be swarmed by greedy idiots once this was over. People could still use it as much as they wanted...they just wouldn't be able to equate Adrian Romanov, son of the Widow, with Harry Potter, boy-who-lived.

"Dad? You have any idea what Grandmother wants?" asked Adrian when he saw Loki.

"This isn't Frigga's spell... it's too messy," said Loki.

"Well I know it's not one of yours, because you're in the next room. So who..." started Adrian, only to drop his jaw when Odin appeared.

"Father," said Loki coolly.

"Loki. The real culprit behind the theft was found, and thrown out. However in the process the bifrost was destroyed, so unless you wish to return via the old paths you are stuck on Midgard," said Odin.

"I take it this is not a social visit. What is the real reason you appeared in Midgard, and to my _son_ no less?"

"Because the one who released the frost giants and tried to seize the throne from Baldur was your son."

"I had nothing to do with that. And I have nothing against Baldur," said Adrian in confusion.

"I speak of your predecessor. You are aware, I assume, that you were not the first attempt at a child outside of Asgard blood," said Odin.

"That can't be right. The first three died...Adrian was the only successful one..." said Loki.

"The first and third were killed, this is true. However what I have never told you was that the second, the one that you were told died on birth not only survived...he made it to Asgard."

Adrian caught what Odin wasn't saying.

"I take it he took the news of his father's true nature poorly, or worse came to Asgard a braggart then?" he asked.

"He believed that the fact Loki was his father gave him a claim on the throne. Despite the knowledge that he was not born of Loki's wife," said Odin in confirmation of what he was tactfully not saying.

"Which means since you knew of him, you definitely didn't want him spreading the truth out. So where did you put him?" asked Adrian.

"The guard. I told him if he wished to claim his place among us, he would have to earn it."

"And I'm betting he never took that news well. Or he was really, really good at hiding his resentment towards you," said Adrian.

Odin didn't say anything, but his silence was most telling.

"So why are you here? I can only assume that you want something since I doubt you summoned both of us into the dream realm just to inform us that the real culprit was found," asked Loki.

"Adrian Romanov, I offer you the same deal I made of your brother. If you wish to take your place amongst us as Loki's heir, then you must earn it in deed and with honor. However, because of your deception you cannot do this on Asgard or any of the realms that we traverse."

Adrian blinked.

"Let me get this straight. In order to come back to Asgard under my real name and become Loki's heir, I have to do something to impress the Aesir while on Midgard. Correct?"

Loki face-palmed.

Adrian's smirk did not inspire confidence in his father.

"So what would bringing the Tesseract to Asgard earn me?" he asked.

Odin blinked.

"You know the location of the Tesseract?"

"I know who _has_ it. However since I am currently working for them and happen to enjoy my current employment it would take a few months at least to convince them that it's not worth their time to study it first. Or they would need a reason to get rid of it, seeing as how a group of humans have already figured out how to adapt it's energy into other items," corrected Adrian.

"I know where they are studying it, and Adrian is next-in-line to be the one to guard it once he's done clearing out a nest of vermin that seems to have situated itself in the magical communities here. He's already rather famous on Midgard under his birth name, though he refuses to go by it," said Loki.

Once this mess was cleared up Adrian was scheduled to take Clint's place in guarding the Cube. Frankly Clint couldn't wait for Adrian to switch places with him... guarding the Cube was dead boring even if it did give him quite a bit of free time.

"I should warn you that Arathorn seeks the Tesseract as well. He has sworn to use it against Asgard to take his place on the throne with Amora the Enchantress at his side."

"Amora? That witch?" said Loki in disgust.

"Amora? Isn't she the one Frigga warned me about when she spoke of the mind arts?" asked Adrian. Loki nodded.

Odin made a note to speak to his wife about how long she was aware of Adrian. And why she had hid the information from him.

Adrian woke up with a start, only to feel Abigail still against him. He yawned, then went back to sleep. He could deal with an older brother he had known nothing about in the morning.

* * *

Adrian was giddy because they had confirmation Fenrir Greyback was going to be in the base...and so was Voldemort. After one trap too many, and learning that the idiot viewed himself as the epitome of the Slytherin 'house', Adrian decided he deserved a special visit from one of his brothers as well.

Though that thought did bring him back to the fact that he was not the first of Loki's surrogate children to survive adulthood, he took solace in the fact that at least his other legitimate siblings actually liked him. The same could not be said of Arathorn, according to Hel when he asked her about him, was a braggart infinitely worse than Thor who viewed himself above Loki's other children. All because he had been born somewhat normal and allowed into Asgard before he tried to take over.

The three oldest _liked_ Adrian, they couldn't stand Arathorn. So they never viewed him as one of Loki's offspring.

Still, he couldn't wait to see the look on Voldemort's face when he brought out the head of Jörmungandr, who was just as eager for some new scenery.

Jörmungandr had grown so large that a single realm could no longer fully contain him comfortably...so eons ago Loki taught him how to expand through the old ways of the Yggdrasil, which were near infinite. Ever since then the old snake had been growing larger and larger, changing the realm his head slept on every decade or so...causing a few minor tremors in the process.

Odin hadn't been pleased when he heard that the snake had grown that big, but when he heard Loki's solution he kept his complaints to a minimum lest Frigga cut him off. So long as Jörmungandr stayed out of Asgard, he could live with it.

The only downside was that it made finding his head nearly impossible...and that his brother hadn't seen the tail end of himself in several centuries at least. Though from what heard from his brother, apparently one part of his anatomy was stuck in a rather wet area and it was very uncomfortable. Someone kept 'milking' it for some reason.

Adrian preferred not to think too hard on that particular piece of info. There were some things you didn't want to know.

Be fun to see Fury's face turn a nice shade of red when he learned that his brother Jörmungandr was planning to snooze the next couple of decades on Midgard.

He was still mad that Adrian had found that high school picture of him in an afro... though the look on Phil's face when he realized who the teen in the high school prom photo was made up for how much he had spent finding and often fixing the old spy gear.

Fury might think he had all the copies, but Adrian had digitized a few to go viral in the event Fury finally did kill him for getting his hands on them. He would never get rid of them all.

Still, Phil could forgive that minor prank considering all the goodies Adrian got him...and possibly most of the syrup and feather pranks he loved to play.

"Alright people, today is one of our biggest missions yet. We have confirmation that Voodletort and Greyback will be in residence."

"What of the vampires?" asked Moody.

Adrian snorted and looked at a very happy Blade sharpening his sword, to the annoyance of one Molly Weasly.

"The minute they heard Blade really _was_ in Europe after any of their kind siding with the dark lord, they got the hell out of town. Blade is feared for a reason. Well...that and they tend to use him as their boogeyman to scare their children," said Adrian.

Blade had a strange expression on his face. Was he actually _grinning_?

So he did take enjoyment out of being scarier than most of the older vampires. Who knew?

"What's our plan for the dark lord?" asked Moody.

"From what you've told me, he's using phylacteries to stay alive. Which means once I take out the main body I can use the crows to send him straight to my sister Hel. She's been meaning to have a...word...with him since I told her about them. The gods who rule death tend to take phylacteries very seriously, because they can mess up their schedules and the paperwork for them is more trouble than it's worth."

"Phylacterwhatsis?" said Sirius.

"I believe you people call them Horcruxes. The proper term for them in phylactery. Remind me to lend you a D and D manual that describes them for you," said Adrian.

"Are there going to be any hostages?" asked Steve.

"So far, none to our knowledge. However if they are in there then they won't hesitate to kill them anyway. Consider this Steve...these are people, who, if they had been around during the time of Grindlewald, would have joined HYDRA in a heartbeat just to further their own agenda of pure blood domination. And this dark lord is no better than the Schmitt," said Adrian.

Steve didn't look happy, but he accepted that.

"Now he knows we're coming, so our usual strategy of dosing the place and killing them in cold blood isn't going to work. They'll likely have charms to filter the air. Which is why we're going to switch up the plan for a change. A full frontal assault, complete with tanks I've found from the WWII era. You can get anything on eBay these days," said Adrian dryly.

"What sort of tanks?" asked Steve.

"The kind you might find on a HYDRA base. I bought the things online with fake cash, then once I got them I sent the location of the sellers back to Fury. We've hit five different sects of the damn group since I've found that weird trick of mine involving electricity."

"You have HYDRA tanks?!" said Steve in shock.

"They're being shipped to another location once we're done with the things to be dismantled or studied. Do you have any idea how easy it was to find the things once someone studied up on your old missions?" asked Adrian.

Steve blinked.

"Seriously?"

"They were using the old codes for tanks and the like. Once I stumbled across the first I knew what to look for it took me less than ten minutes to find the rest. These people were idiots," said Adrian flatly.

"Adrian, here," said Abigail. She tossed him a magical iPod and his special earbuds.

"Thank you Abby. Now, in addition to the tanks, we are going to have serious support in the forms of two very bored legendary monsters...AKA my two older brothers. Snake-breath in particular is eager to see Earth for some reason. The other one is only going to be let out to give the werewolves a collective coronary."

"What's with the MP3?" asked Granger.

"First off, it's an iPod that runs on magic. Secondly Abby and I tend to listen to metal or other music of that like when we do serious hunting. I blame her for switching up my tunes though," said Adrian with a mock glare.

"Not my fault you grabbed mine by mistake," said Abby with a smirk.

* * *

Adrian couldn't wait to get this over with. His two brothers were standing by, ready to attack the people he designated.

Once this was done he could start working on redeeming his spot in Asgard. Odin now knew that he was in fact Loki's son and that all he had stripped of him was the spell Frigga had used on Adrian, not his actual strength. It helped that it was so recent and that Adrian had slowly been adjusting to his Aesir strength for years now.

Adrian palmed something other than his Kiss tablets. In his hands was something infinitely more dangerous.

Laughing gas.

"Alright, in three, two, one..." said Adrian before he fired the tank up and broke the glass.

He managed to knock out a third of the death eaters inside who weren't fast enough in putting up a bubble head charm. Most of them passed out from getting a bit too much of the gas.

"Alright, first team in! Remember, they will be aiming killing curses at us, so don't go skimpy on the bullets!" shouted Adrian.

The first wave went in and started shooting. Once the curses started getting more accurate, Adrian called them back.

"Second wave, tanks aim and fire!" said Adrian.

The four tanks Adrian had kept for this particular mission lined up around the house on each side aimed at the biggest concentration they could find and fired.

The walls exploded.

"Third wave, start shooting!"

Frag grenades were launched the the concentration of werewolves.

Suddenly Adrian spotted a face in the crowd of wolves.

"Remus, you ready with that camera?" he called out.

Remus blinked.

"Hang on... Camera ready. This is your message to the wolf packs?" said Remus.

"And any future dark lords that try to make me return to deal with them," said Adrian.

Adrian located the nearest old way to the house...five miles from where they were.

"_Fenrir, you're up,"_ said Adrian in Norse.

There was a low, long howl from out of nowhere.

"Everyone, heads up! Fenrir is incoming! Remember, no one shoot the wolf!" said Adrian.

There was a thunder in the distance, but a cloudless sky overhead. The ground rumbled as something massive started barreling towards them, and several people had to get low to the ground to avoid falling over.

Another howl, this one much closer and more terrifying.

A large figure appeared in the distance...it was massive in size, and had course fur. The teeth were yellowed and the eyes were almost completely feral. The wolf skidded up to where he smelled Adrian and panted.

"Hey big brother. Happy to be out for a bit?"

The wolf barked. Adrian pointed at the largest werewolf who was giving the great devourer a shocked look.

"See that one? He goes by the name of Fenrir, but his actions don't flatter our father. So why don't we show this... Fenrir Greyback just who the top wolf is around here?" said Adrian with a smirk.

The wolf howled and immediately honed in on the feral werewolf. He started growling and large amounts of drool came from his maw.

"Go get him big brother," said Adrian.

Fenrir snarled and started running, taking great strides.

Greyback was gone and down the great wolf's gullet before he even had a chance to realize what had happened.

Then they all felt a massive shockwave of magical energy.

Voldemort was ready to play.


	16. Chapter 16

"So... You're Voldemort. Talk about highly overrated," said Adrian unimpressed.

The Destroyer he had seen photos of from Arathorn's attempts to kill Thor was impressive. The fact he had tried to pin the almost theft of the Casket on Adrian after he left, that was sad.

This Voldemort character?

He was just pathetic.

"Tell me, have you met my other brother? Jörmungandr?" asked Adrian, bringing out the massive serpent.

The dark wizards looked in shock as a truly massive snake, easily bigger than any on earth appeared. It slithered up to Adrian much like the wolf had.

Adrian put his hand on the large fang next to him, completely unconcerned.

"See, my brothers don't like you, and my older sister, Hel? She's rather pissed about your little...soul containers. And Jor here has agreed to take you straight to her. Now isn't that nice?" he said sweetly.

Voldemort narrowed his red eyes, which made him look completely like a cliché villain and hissed at Jörmungandr. To the shock of the wizards, the snake blink and said in perfect English...

"Your accent is absolutely atrocious. At least Adrian had the good sense to speak to snakes that don't sound like backwater hicks."

Voldemort's eyes narrowed in anger. How dare this snake call his accent bad!

Adrian hissed to his brother, and the serpent laughed. Voldemort snarled in anger, as he alone had understood the insult that Adrian had said to Jörmungandr.

Suddenly the serpent reeled back and bit Voldemort in half, spitting out the part in his mouth.

"Disgusting. He's all yours, sister," said Jörmungandr. Adrian discreetly directed him to the nearest farm so he could get the taste out of his mouth.

Just because he rarely needed to eat didn't mean he couldn't. The poor farmer who came to check on his animals was horrified to find that they had all disappeared in the middle of the night. Every cow, pig, chicken and lowly goat had been taken.

Adrian looked at the remaining Death Eaters. They looked back at him in horrified shock.

"Now, am I going to have to get my brothers to kill you all, or will you quietly surrender? And do remember I have no issues with killing any of you here and now."

"_And what of us, cousin?" _asked one of the infiltrators. Ivanov, if Adrian remembered right.

Adrian smirked.

"_The first three rounds of vodka are on me, Cousin. Tell the others that my final order to them is to get shitfaced, and I'll join them soon."_

The Russians in the group heard that, and cheered. They broke the wands they had gotten off dead Death Eaters and threw down their masks.

They disapparated to the nearest bar to get drunk. Adrian looked at the horrified Death Eaters.

With the removal of the Russian spies, they had dropped to a quarter of their group. They looked at each other and surrendered. No way in magic were they challenging someone who could bring out something as big as Fenrirsûlfr and Jörmungandr.

Steve went inside in case there were any hostages.

There weren't.

* * *

"So Blade, happy I called you in?"

Blade flashed him a smirk full of teeth. It wasn't a nice one from the way Remus was grimacing behind them, but it spoke volumes. Blade wasn't talkative that much, and yet he got along with Adrian just fine.

"What of the wolf and snake?" asked Sirius.

"Fenrir is currently out roaming some of the more uninhabited areas. I'll send him back later. Know anyplace where Jor could take a snooze and not be bothered? Preferably tropical?" asked Adrian.

"There's the Black Island off of Tahiti. No one goes there except the family."

"Perfect. Mind if he takes a nap there?"

"He won't eat me if I happen to visit will he?" asked Sirius.

"Only if you're too loud. And he'll at least give you a head's up first."

"That's a relief," said Sirius sarcastically. He could always hit the snake with a silencing charm. To keep the noise level down.

"Look at the bright side. Any one comes to bother or arrest you, Jor can eat them."

Sirius perked up at that.

"Think he could eat my insane cousin Bella? While the Longbottom clan watches?" he asked.

"Bellatrix Lestrange? How did we miss her or the two half-wits?"

"Oh, you hit them earlier with the laughing gas," said Sirius.

"Sure, bring them along and the Longbottoms so they can get some closure. Maybe Dad will have a way to heal the kid's parents too. He's better at healing magic than I am, and I'm a certified doctor," said Adrian.

Which was rather ironic really.

* * *

Loki went into the long-term ward at St. Mungo's. He took a look at Frank and Alice.

It took him ten minutes to say "They're still in shock. Have none of the doctors here tried to bring them out of it? I know for a fact the mundanes have techniques to help torture victims."

"Use muggle techniques?" said a healer aghast.

"I thought as much. Wizards have certainly gone downhill since the frost giant wars. You think yourselves so above those without magic that you've neglected to see that they have found ways that could make your own better. If these two had been _properly_ treated, they could have been with their son years ago," said Loki with a derisive snort.

Neville, their son, had gone to the hospital when he heard that the god Loki had visited to see if he could help his parents. Hearing that he could have had them back years ago if the healers had bothered to learn from muggles was horrifying for him.

It would lead to a massive revamping of the magical communities lead by Neville...shortly after his parents were brought back using muggle techniques.

* * *

"Thank god! Do you have any idea how boring it is here?"

"Is it really that bad Clint?" asked Adrian, eyes laughing.

"I nearly fell asleep twice," deadpanned Clint. Sure he had plenty of time to upgrade his weapons, but without any magic he was limited to what he could do.

"Luckily for you, Abby and I are here to save you from complete boredom," laughed Adrian.

"So what's this I hear about you bringing a giant snake onto Earth?" asked Clint, packing up.

"My older brother Jörmungandr, who is so big his body literally has to stretch across the world portals just so he doesn't end all bunched up on one planet agreed to help bring in that idiot Voodletort in exchange for someplace tropical to nap on. Should have seen Fury's face when I told him that a massive multi-world snake was sleeping on the planet that could eat a man without having to chew."

Clint snorted. Adrian _thrived_ in giving his handler and Fury massive headaches. He had heard rumors of Adrian locating Fury's high school prom photo, but he hadn't seen any proof.

"By the way...here's your copy of some blackmail material," said Adrian.

Clint took the photo...and started cackling.

It wasn't the high school photo, but it was a baby picture.

"Fury was cussing up a storm when he found out his aunt uses Facebook...and she had been posting a ton of his old pictures," said Adrian grinning.

Adrian had friended the woman so he could nab all of the recently digitized photos to annoy Fury with. He had to avoid being shot when the man used him as target practice when he found out.

"So have you heard from Nat?" asked Clint.

"She's in Russia on assignment. Dealing with some idiot general who happens to like red heads," said Adrian.

Not his problem. She was a grown woman who had done a good job raising him. He had known about her job years ago...and that it involved somethings he would really rather not know about personally.

"Have fun playing security guard, and try not to make my baby sister kill you," cackled Clint.

He considered Abigail the sister he never had, and she thought of him as her older brother.

* * *

Adrian was on the cat walk above where the scientists were experimenting with the Tesseract keeping half an eye on them. Abigail was just as bored as he was, and they alternated who 'bird watched' the group below every hour.

Thanks to Adrian's odd powers over electricity, the two could kill time by playing online MMO's until it was their turn, or surf the net for videos.

Considering the job only called for _one_ person to guard the scientists, Fury considered having the two split up the job a small price to pay to keep Adrian from driving everyone up the wall out of boredom.

Of course Adrian didn't spend all of his new 'free' time playing games or making playlists for various scenarios.

He also killed time by creating new weapon ideas. Abigail and Adrian had already upgraded _every_ weapon in their arsenal four times over with all the ideas that came to Adrian's twisted mind.

If something didn't happen soon, the stir crazy birds would drive every scientist studying the cube insane from an all-out prank war.

After the third time he found his coffee switched to decaf, Selvig finally asked Fury to bring Clint back for a while to give them a break from what any real Agent would consider punishment duty.

It wasn't like anything would happen in the week off given to the pair...right?

* * *

"What the hell do you mean the Cube went active and spat out someone who looked a _lot_ like Loki?! He hasn't even gone near the thing since we found out it was on Earth!" said Adrian in disbelief.

"_Someone claiming to be called Arathorn showed up and took Clint, Selvig and a few others under his personal control...and he plans to use the Cube to bring something here and take the world for himself,"_ said Fury.

"Did you just say Arathorn?" said Adrian paling.

"_You know him?"_

"Odin showed up during Europe's purging and told us Loki had another surrogate-born child that survived... Apparently he was the one who ruined Thor's coronation and sent the Destroyer to Earth. I think the experiments on the Tesseract let him know where it was. He wants to use it to claim Asgard's throne by force...he's probably going to destroy Earth to spite me, Loki and Thor as an added bonus," said Adrian.

"_Either way you and Falcon are being recalled. I want you to bring in Banner since he won't turn Hulk on you,"_ said Fury.

"Cool. I've been meaning to see how Verde's doing anyway," said Adrian. He hung up the phone and went to find Abby.

"So what's going on?"

"Apparently Arathorn made it to Earth and plans to use the Tesseract to destroy the place and take Asgard by force. We're being recalled so we can get it back...but chances are this is the only chance I'll have to return to Asgard and get my full heritage back. Once Thor finds out the Cube was here, he won't hesitate to return it to Asgard and I doubt the _Council_ (Adrian spat out the word like a disease) will be able to argue with him like they would with me."

"I still can't believe you have an older brother named after Aragorn's father," said Abigail.

"He's no brother of mine. If even Hel can't stand the bastard, then he must be an ass worse than Thor was."

Hel could tolerate almost anyone. But there were the occasional people who really pissed her off.

Arathorn was one of those 'lucky' few. He would receive a very 'cold' welcome the moment he tried to go to Helheim.

Adrian considered it a second home, something that always amused his sister. Mostly because people tended to avoid her realm out of fear, revulsion or because of the sheer cold temperature. She never took offense that he always left to eat though...that was just being cautious.

* * *

"Yo," said Adrian, raising a hand.

Bruce blinked. It took him a few moments to recognize him.

"Andy? You've sprouted like a weed," noted Bruce with surprise.

Adrian hissed, and Verde slithered from inside Bruce's shirt (his number one favorite hiding spot) and looked at Adrian. He hissed back and immediately slithered onto his should...taking up most of his back and arms.

"And Verde didn't?" said Adrian grinning.

Bruce blushed.

"He's a rather easy to please pet. Did you know he has a taste for spiders and other vermin?"

"I can see you made good use of the expansion charm," chuckled Adrian.

It was an easy trick... hit the inside of your shirt with an expansion charm, and Verde was undetectable. It also worked on Bruce's pants for when he "Hulk'ed out" ask it was called around S.H.I.E.L.D., to Adrian's amusement.

No more ripped jeans or waking up without any underwear. Bruce was never happier to learn he was a hedgewitch than when he learned that the charm could be applied to clothes. And Verde was the perfect pet for him...he ate the vermin that tended to destroy his books and supplies, and the Other Guy never noticed when the snake acted like a crude sort of belt.

Bruce wondered if Andy would reclaim his snake.

"Wow... Verde says he likes you more than me. That's a first."

Bruce blinked.

"Really?"

"Apparently the 'other guy' as you call him gives off so much heat that Verde likes it better than curling around me. That and you tend to go to the hotter climates where I keep getting sent to colder ones. So Bruce, what's your opinion of him?"

"He makes great company, and he keeps the pests away from my things. Do you have any idea how often I've found that a poisonous spider problem is gone because he has a taste for them?" said Bruce.

Adrian chuckled.

"So would you like to keep him? I'm fairly sure Jor could give you snake speech if I asked...he is a patron god for the slithery animals," said Adrian.

It wouldn't be too far a stretch for Jörmungandr to be able to impart parseltongue to others.

Bruce blinked.

"Definitely. Verde's been the only company I've had for the past two and a half years. I've grown rather fond of him," said Bruce.

"Goody. And I know he's happier with you because I can talk to him. Which reminds me, how would you like a temporary job finding something taken from S.H.I.E.L.D.?" asked Adrian.

"They aren't interested in the other guy are they?" asked Bruce tiredly.

"Not at the moment. We need your help to find something that lets off small amounts of gamma radiation constantly. Once you find it, they'll let you go," said Adrian.

"You promise?" said Bruce.

"Like I said, S.H.I.E.L.D. will let you go on your way... But there's someone else who might just high-jack you for more intelligent conversation that won't scare his assistant half to death out of sheer boredom."

Just because Tony clicked with Loki and his snarky attitude didn't mean Pepper liked him that much. Fortunately for her sanity Loki wasn't too comfortable with a spirit (no matter how often Tony corrected Loki that J.A.R.V.I.S. was an AI, Loki still insisted on calling him a spirit) keeping track of everything he did in the house, so he had gotten his own floor in New York in the soon-to-be-finished Stark Tower.

It had been separated from Jarvis' control and given to another AI that Tony and Adrian had made for Loki specifically. One that was apparently addicted to pop culture because it had taken the personality of a character who hid as the god 'Loki' but was really an arch angel named Gabriel.

Fortunately it was easy to shut that AI up, as it seemed to view viruses as candy. Loki just set it's computer to surf some of the more infested sites and Gabriel would be mercifully quiet for hours. Adrian and Tony just found it hilarious. Pepper enjoyed her private revenge against Loki and his never-ending pranks by turning his own AI against him.

"I am getting paid for this right?"

"If Fury _doesn't_ pay you for your help I'll release some of his baby photos among the junior agents. Though I'll have to avoid him for a few...months."

Bruce chuckled then realized he was being serious.

"You have Fury's baby photos?" he said in disbelief.

"His aunt is still alive and she digitized them so she could post them on facebook, despite his wishes. I became her new best friend listening to all his little stories growing up and Tony is trying to become her friend to for blackmail material. Unfortunately for Tony (and fortunately for Fury's growing migraine) his previous reputation is keeping that from happening."

"Why hasn't Fury shot you yet?"

"I'm too damn cute?" asked Adrian with a wink.

"That can't be right, unless Fury's gay," said Bruce laughing, accepting the snake back. Verde slithered back into his shirt and curled around his waist.

"Oh, now I remember. Because the minute he tries I'll release every embarrassing thing I've learned about him to the others. Should have seen Phil's face when he realized the kid in the prom photo and afro was his boss," said Adrian cackling evilly.

Phil had turned white from shocked horror when Fury recognized the photo and damn near tore it out of his hands. He still kept the spy gear though.


	17. Chapter 17

Phil was going to kill Adrian, if Fury didn't beat him to it first. Mostly because Tony had found out he had hard copies of a younger Fury back in the sixties looking like a hippie and he wanted a few to annoy the man. And a whining Tony Stark was annoying as hell.

Loki was too busy trying to decide whether to laugh at Phil's predicament or trying to locate Arathorn through their blood connection.

At the moment, to Phil's increasing ire, Loki chose to laugh at him. If it wasn't for the fact Loki could easily have been the one trying to destroy Earth and not his up-till-now missing son, Phil would have shot him just to shut the god up.

Unfortunately that wasn't an option for Tony, who had hijacked the comm lines the first chance he had to annoy Phil because he could.

Hearing one remark too many, Phil swore then and there when he saw Adrian he was going to punch the guy. Abigail would probably be rooting him on too.

* * *

Adrian's first indication that this was not going to be his day was when the second Phil saw his face, he had a weird sort of zen smile on his face...right before he punched him so hard that he broke his nose.

"Ow. What the hell?" asked Adrian testing to see if it was broken. To Phil's open disappointment it wasn't.

"I believe that might be our fault," said Loki unrepentant.

"You two harassed him about the photos I gave him for his birthday didn't you?" said Adrian.

"Maybe," said Loki, not meeting his eyes. Adrian took that as the indication that Tony had bugged Phil endlessly on the way there and Loki had laughed about it. No wonder he was pissed.

"So why did he hit you?" asked Bruce.

"Loki's powerful enough to avoid the hit with one of his illusions, and Tony's in that suit. I'm not in a suit of metal and I don't use illusions, plus generally Phil wants to punch me anyway for pranking him again. So now I don't feel too bad about booby trapping his desk again," said Adrian.

Phil twitched. He was going to have a junior agent go to see what Adrian had done. One he outranked so badly they couldn't get out of it. If they survived he was going to give them a promotion to his personal prank-tester.

Even Fury couldn't complain if Phil had enough of Adrian and his pranks.

"Speaking of Phil, Adrian..." said Natasha warningly.

"Mom."

"Fury's tired of you harassing your handlers, so you'll have to file your reports yourself, like any other senior agent. And you'll be given the most annoying new recruits he can find so you can teach them some humility," said Natasha.

Adrian processed that statement before he cracked a massive evil grin. It gave Loki such a proud moment to see his son show his father's pranking habits.

"Does this mean he's giving me the clear to break in the more arrogant assholes by driving them insane?"

Phil cursed. That wasn't a punishment, that would just make Adrian happy!

"He said, and I quote 'if you're going to be an annoying asshole, then I'm going to use you as a scare tactic for the other annoying assholes,'" said Natasha.

Adrian's cackling sent shivers down the spines of several people not even on the helicarrier...and everyone within earshot.

* * *

Arathorn was enjoying this moment. Thanos, the mad titan who sought to court his 'sister' Hel had willingly handed over the staff to control his army.

He had never considered that collection of freaks and monsters his siblings or his betters. He was above them all, and why should he not be? He wasn't a creature or something that was born looking half-dead. Once he took his rightful place as King of Asgard and the Jotuns (wasn't that a nice surprise, learning Loki was in fact Laufey's only son) and Thanos ruled the rest he would dispose of the rejects with glee, except for Hel who would become the mad titan's wench.

Amora was pleased that her 'boyfriend' was just as morally corrupt as she was. Her enforcer wasn't happy with him, but who cared what the help thought?

Arathorn used a pathetic dream-speak spell to talk to his allies. They were eager to destroy Midgard and have Asgard out of the way.

He couldn't believe his 'father' was so weak that he relied on spells to be able to stand beside his brother Thor.

* * *

Adrian was helping Bruce search for the Tesseract using his trick with electricity. It made calibrating things so much easier when the one you were working with could do so directly and knew what you were trying to do.

Adrian had a degree in the same field Bruce did, mostly so he could talk to the man without looking like a total idiot.

Considering the fact that it kept him out of trouble and out of everyone's hair, Fury was more than happy to toss him in the same room as Bruce for hours.

Verde was curled up on one of the chairs, ignoring everyone around him since Adrian had cast a darkness spell around his eyes. He knew his snake's habits even if Verde chose to be around Dr. Banner instead of him. It was better for everyone if he slept on a chair that didn't move instead of worrying about him accidentally squeezing Bruce while he walked.

"Adrian, they have a hit on Arathorn. He's in Germany," said Loki.

"Damn. Which of us should go? I mean I could stay behind and continue to help Bruce, but you could take my place if you want to meet him."

Loki thought about it, before he looked to Bruce.

"It's up to you. Either way we'll finally meet our mystery guest," said Loki.

"Adrian's weird trick controlling computers directly through his mind is too helpful. I think it would be better if you went, after all you're the senior magic user around here," said Bruce.

"He has a point. I'm more useful here than trying to capture this Arathorn," said Adrian.

"Very well. Phil will be disappointed... I overheard him talking to Hill about a prank on you for your return," said Loki.

Adrian blinked, before he smirked.

"YES! I have finally corrupted Coulson!" he cackled.

It was about time Phil took a proactive approach to Adrian's prank wars.

* * *

Thor landed on the plane, took one look at the nearest Asgardian signature and grabbed the first body he could grab.

Unfortunately for him, that person was Loki.

"YOU COMPLETE IDIOT!" yelled Loki, slamming his staff on Thor's rather thick head.

It took the plane two minutes to come pick them up, and it would take Thor years before Loki let him even begin to live that mistake down. Adrian still laughed at how thick his uncle's head was.

* * *

"So...that's Arathorn. He looks like an even bigger prick than Hel had described," said Adrian from above the cell.

It was built for the Hulk, but Adrian had serious doubts that it would hold him. Bruce hated having a constant reminder that S.H.I.E.L.D. was afraid of his other side.

Probably why Adrian took the window seat so Bruce wouldn't have to look at it.

"So Tony, how long do you think it would take JARVIS to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. on his own?"

"A few hours. You saw that?" asked Tony.

"More like I know you too well," said Adrian. Right as Steve walked in, Adrian moved the screens to something other than locating the Tesseract.

"HYDRA," said Steve unhappy.

"More like their weaponry. Looks like the Council wants to recreate _his_ work since we're so out of the game compared to others that it's not even funny. I know for a fact Fury would rather deal with a group of people with extraordinary abilities than have a bunch of weapons made by a madman who tried to rule the world. He hates HYDRA almost as much as you do Steve, and he's not too pleased with the fact that the Council is making him try to replicate their research."

It was why Adrian knew this would be the perfect time for Fury to get rid of the Tesseract through him, and give Adrian the chance redeem his good name with his grandfather. They didn't need something as dangerous as the cube when Stark's newer arc reactors ran off the same damn energy, or close enough to make no difference.

Multiple birds with one stone.

* * *

Adrian looked at his 'brother' in disgust.

Thanks to him he had to leave Asgard early, find a way to redeem his honor and good name, and deal with someone he knew his mother really liked being turned into a puppet for this bastard's sick pleasure.

So no, Adrian didn't even remotely consider them related.

Arathorn sneered at Natasha, the 'mother' of his so-called younger brother.

Baelfire was a weak fool who preferred to play with his forge and with that foolish magic than learn what real power was. The fact he didn't proudly declare his heritage to Odin like he had only proved that fact for him.

Arathorn gloated about the details he had forcefully pried from Agent Barton's mind about Natasha and Adrian. Seeing the woman break down in front of him was all he needed to affirm his belief that women in general were weak creatures...right up until the point where Natasha did a one-eighty and glared at him.

"So you plan to release the Hulk on us. Good luck with that. Bruce would never lose control around Adrian," she said coldly before she left.

Adrian had a way with creatures, and he wasn't afraid of the Hulk at all.

* * *

There was an explosion and out of all the agents on board, Abigail Whistler was the only one to run into Clint Barton first.

She had heard about this spell he was under, and she wasn't going to allow Arathorn to turn her 'older brother' into a killer of his friends.

It was time to put Natasha's training in hand-to-hand and all the sparring against a stronger, faster opponent to good use.

Abigail's leg went high as she blocked one of Clint's punches, the close quarters making his arrows of little use other than as an awkward knife, though it would take more time than Abigail was going to give him to set an arrow for such a use.

Clint was a sniper, one who specialized in arrows rather than bullets...though he could use a gun just as easily as he could a bow. Not as much fun though.

Abigail was a vampire hunter, one who had to fight in close combat more often than not and sparred with the likes of Adrian, Blade and Natasha regularly, giving her reflexes most fighters couldn't match. And Clint, who was under a compulsion spell that forced him to follow Adrian's asshole older brother, slowed his reaction time even more.

Just because he was being made to fight his little sister didn't mean that he had to go all out.

Abigail landed a nasty haymaker, causing Clint to bang his head against one of the pipes, disorienting him enough that he was able to shake off most of the compulsion. She took that chance to knock him out with a drop kick to the head.

It would take an hour for Clint to wake up from that hit, not to mention a healing session via Loki to get rid of the minor concussion Abigail had just given him.

* * *

Adrian was slammed against the wall from the explosion caused by Clint's arrow. He would have gone with Tony and Steve, but he had seen Bruce and his mother fall down to a lower deck, and with how the tempers had been raging earlier he knew his efforts would be better spent keeping the Hulk from going ballistic on everyone. He dropped down where his mother was pinned by a stray pipe and helped lever it off of her.

Her ankle was mildly bruised and not broken like he had feared. Because she hadn't struggled too much it hadn't become a sprain. Seeing Bruce about to 'Hulk out', he calmly approached the man and helped him up.

"You okay Bruce?" he asked, not concerned in the slightest.

No matter what anyone said about the Hulk, Adrian knew that deep down at a magical level the Hulk and Bruce were one in the same. The problem was that Bruce treated the Hulk like an animal that needed to be caged and feared. The Hulk responded to that with anger and he tended to latch onto Bruce's emotions as a result.

So treating the Hulk like an animal that needed to be respected for it's danger level and not with fear was what was needed to keep from being smashed into a wall.

Bruce could feel the Other Guy coming through, and he was afraid. Afraid for Adrian and Natasha, who despite worrying about the Hulk showing up, had treated him with respect anyway.

"Adrian, you need to get your mother out of here," said Bruce

Adrian noted Loki was above him.

"Dad can get my mother out of here. Right now you and the Hulk need me more," he said.

Bruce's skin took a green overtone. Loki had helped Natasha out of the lower level and away from Bruce. If Adrian could handle an overgrown puppy like Fenrirsûlfr, then there was no way he couldn't handle this...Hulk...beast.

Finally the Hulk came out fully and roared. Adrian let him get his anger out.

"Feel better big guy?"

"_Little god not scared of Hulk?"_ he asked in confusion.

"You're not that scary big guy. Sure you're big, green and have some serious anger issues, but most of the time it's not your fault that you go on a rampage. People just react badly to things they don't really understand."

The Hulk stared at the 'Little God' as he called him. Adrian honestly wasn't that afraid of him...and that confused him. Everyone was afraid of him, including his human side.

Adrian gently put his hand on Hulk's massive green arm.

"Tell you what big guy. How about I go borrow Thor's hammer and we go have some fun fighting on the top deck? That way you can get some of your excess energy out without hurting anyone," said Adrian.

Hulk laughed.

"_Hulk like Little God."_

Adrian chuckled. It took him a few moments to find Thor and borrow the hammer (once he explained why he needed it in the first place) and he went out to the flight deck where the two had a bit of fun sparring without getting anyone else in the way.

Fury was annoyed, but if Adrian kept the Hulk from going on a rampage in exchange for using torn up planes as toys instead of the much more expensive helicarrier, he could honestly give less of a damn.

* * *

Loki was just in time to see Phil get stabbed by Arathorn's staff and watch as the man was thrown into a wall. He managed to grab the man before he collapsed from the pain.

Never before had he been more thankful that he had occasionally drifted towards Eir's domain when his mother was too busy being queen to learn healing magic.

He was able to stabilize Phil before he lost too much blood from internal bleeding. He would be in a coma for a while until Adrian was able to help him heal the man, but that was a small price to pay in exchange for not dying. Loki glared at the area where his 'son' had been thrown into the wall.

Arathorn had vanished once he was out of sight and he had taken the location of the Tesseract with him.

Still, at least he could take solace in the fact he no longer had Clint under his control. The man had been taken to the infirmary where he had dropped Natasha off so she could be sure he was back to himself. He had left her with a cooling spell on her ankle which was healing as he kept Phil alive long enough for Adrian to finish what he had begun.


	18. Chapter 18

Adrian walked into the room with a set of fresh bruises and a tired out Bruce. Once Hulk had affirmed his belief that he was indeed the strongest there was, he had calmed down long enough to return to Bruce.

Bruce was still in shock that Adrian had matched his other half blow-for-blow before he had gotten distracted by Arathorn's escape on a stolen aircraft. The Hulk had tossed him at the plane like a rocket, and Adrian had to use the hammer to avoid turning to paste on the ground below and get back on the helicarrier when he failed to hit the thing.

Adrian looked at the collective heroes, most of whom looked like they had been on the wrong end of a fight.

Tony had a nasty bruise all over from his armor banging against the rotors, Steve had a few minor cuts from fighting off insurgents, his mother and Clint were still in the infirmary, and Thor looked rather exhausted.

Abigail hadn't come out unscathed either. Her hair was out of it's usual pony tail and he could see that her lip was cut up a little. Compared to them, Adrian looked relatively unharmed.

At least the Hulk hadn't gotten loose _inside_ the carrier. Who knew what sort of damage he could have caused when he was that pissed.

"We're dead in the air. Arathorn has escaped and the Tesseract was on that plane. And thanks to that bomb the computers can't scan for it," said Fury tiredly.

"We won't need to. The moment he starts up that machine we'll be able to feel it," said Loki.

Out of all those assembled, he alone hadn't gotten into a fight. Mostly because he had kept himself to support and insuring none of the team (including Phil) had been killed.

"What do you mean?" demanded Fury.

"The Tesseract is an energy source. The only reason Adrian and I haven't been able to find it is because it was dormant. But once they open that portal we'll be able to find them in seconds and teleport everyone there. Opening the bifrost on Asgard is enough to tell every magically-inclined Asgardian where to find it, if they didn't already know. It takes a lot of energy to open, let alone sustain a portal," said Loki.

It was part of the reason why keeping the bifrost open was forbidden for more than a few moments. Prolonged use on a single planet would destroy it with a magical surge. It was little more than a laser that sent people to where they wished to go.

And it was uncomfortable for newcomers, a bit like a port-key that Adrian had demonstrated for him once. There was a reason why they spent so much time on the old pathways rather than take the bifrost.

It didn't make them nearly as sick to their stomachs using it.

"In the meantime I'll get to work healing you lot. Thankfully I tend to make bruise balm and pepper-up in bulk," said Adrian dryly.

Adrian ushered them into the dining area and made them each eat something to get their strength up. Thor in particular was ravenous. While they ate Adrian maneuvered around their arms to apply a balm that would heal their bruises in minutes...it was made of phoenix tears so the healing would be quicker than normal.

He went into the infirmary to check on the others once he finished there.

His mother gratefully accepted the icy drink and the food for her and Clint, as well as the potion to wake them both up. Adrian was horrified then royally pissed at how badly Phil had been hurt and used enough magic to give him a longer healing than his quick fixes.

A longer healing would take some time to finish, but the end result was that it would be better for him and it would stick more easily. He would be out cold until this was over with, but that was better in the long run. Wounds like that hurt like a bitch.

The Avengers weren't just angry. No they were pissed at what happened to Phil and everyone else (Loki told them he had nearly been killed by Arathorn).

Despite the fact Adrian gave Phil grief and pranked him a lot, he did care for the man. So the fact Arathorn thought so little of someone honestly noble and loyal pissed him off. If he had to chose between letting Arathorn live or killing him to end the threat, well he wouldn't lose any sleep over killing the jerk.

So when Tony figured out where Arathorn was likely to set up the portal, he went ahead to confirm it...and to get a change in his armor because the one he had brought with him was about to malfunction.

Adrian and Abigail went to check on Clint who had just woken up...and to make sure Phil was taking to the healing spell Adrian had left on him.

* * *

Clint shook his head to clear out the leftover influence of Arathorn.

"You alright Clint?" asked Adrian.

"Gotta level out. Gotta clear my head," he said tiredly.

"What you need to do is quit shaking your head. Abby gave you a bit of a concussion and the spell Loki used to speed your recovery won't be helped by you shaking your head like that," said Adrian flatly.

Clint winced at the volume level but quit trying to shake his head to get rid of Arathorn's influence.

Adrian's hands glowed with a green-blue color as he checked Clint's head out.

"It seems that the blow you took to the head forced your mind to reset back to normal levels. Your mind will be your own again if you give it a few minutes and take some time to eat. Normally I would make you take a nap for a few minutes to let the spell do it's job, but..."

"Tony said it would take them at least two hours to get to New York, and they left thirty minutes ago. Clint can take a short nap to recover from the kick to the head I gave him," said Abigail.

"I'm not tired," said Clint.

"No, but you need to let the spell clear out what's left of that injury you took to break the influence. Fifteen minutes isn't going to kill you," said Adrian.

"If they find that creep I'll wake you up so we can swipe on of the planes," said Natasha.

Clint blinked twice. Was Natasha offering to watch him sleep? Adrian hit him with a minor sleep spell and Clint yawned...then glared at Adrian.

However his own body rebelled against him and Clint soon fell asleep. It wasn't a sound sleep, but it would give him time to recover from the hit to the head.

An archer wasn't very good if he couldn't see straight.

* * *

Adrian was in a foul mood. However one thought kept him from showing it.

Once this mess was over and Arathorn was secured in their custody, he could finally clear his name once and for all among the Aesir. And returning the Tesseract might be enough to redeem his place as Loki's heir.

If not then he was willing to do whatever Odin demanded of him to earn his place among the Asgardians so long as it wasn't morally apprehensive to him. As an assassin's son, his morals were a bit...different from most, but there was some things even he would never do, like target children.

So while they waited for either Tony to retrieve his new armor which he had been waiting to try out for a while now or for Arathorn to make his move, Adrian prepared.

Abigail was making their playlists as was her habit before a hunt. It was her way of relaxing before a fight.

Loki had gifted her with an enchanted bow. She merely had to think of an element, and it would produce an arrow made of it when she drew back the string. She had accepted it, mostly so she wouldn't run out of arrows during the fight. He planned to enchant Clint's quiver so he wouldn't run out either...as an apology for the fact that Arathorn had been born out of_ his_ experiment.

Loki walked up to his son with an odd expression on his face.

"What would you do...if you came face to face with him?"

Loki didn't need to elaborate who he was speaking of.

"Shared origin or not, if I see _Arathorn _(he spat the name out like a curse) I will either punch him or stab him. He's no brother of ours. Even Hel hates him, mostly because from what she's learned since we captured him he fully intends to just hand her over to the same monster that gave him that staff and the ability to control others."

Loki's eyes widened.

"He has allied himself with Thanos? Is he insane?"

"Thanos?"

"Thanos, the mad titan. He seeks to court death, or specifically Hel and he won't hesitate to level the universe to do it. Hel dislikes him greatly because of how much death he causes, ironic as that may seem. Only a fool would ally himself with Thanos, he cares nothing for his allies and only thinks of power," said Loki.

"Considering Amora wouldn't have been able to help him after being thrown off the bifrost, it was entirely possible that he had no choice," said Adrian.

Loki shook his head.

"His eyes were clear when he attacked the Son of Coul. He must have allied himself willingly to that thing," said Loki.

Adrian paused in what he was doing and stopped to look at his father.

"Dad, don't take this the wrong way, but were you hit on the head recently? Because that sounded like something _Thor_ would call Phil," said Adrian.

Loki blinked...

"Dammit, I knew his stupidity was contagious..." he grumbled.

Adrian stopped and laughed. He needed something to remind him that his life wasn't always going to be death and destruction. Hearing Loki curse about picking up Thor's outdated way of speaking was something he had sorely needed to clear his head.

(Tony had broken Loki of that annoying habit within two weeks and multiple movie marathons. Loki no longer sounded like a Shakespearean reject, something they were all glad of.)

* * *

Tony had no time to contact S.H.I.E.L.D. and the others as he dodged staff fire from Arathorn. The brat had stolen his tower and used the reactor to power up the cube until it became self-sustaining!

Fortunately Loki and Adrian were paying attention, because they were coming out of a building Tony had never looked twice at because of how boring it was compared to the rest. He blinked.

Was that a _S.H.I.E.L.D._ headquarters not three blocks from his new tower? Why the hell hadn't anyone mentioned that little tidbit to him when he applied for zoning? Better yet, why hadn't Adrian told him that S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were that close to his new home?!

_~Tony, we're here. What's the damage?~_ asked Adrian over the special comm lines he had developed with magic. It wouldn't cut out around all the magical energy they would be throwing around soon enough, or if Thor got a little too lightning crazy and accidentally caused an EMP.

"Well so far Arathorn has the Cube up and running using _my_ reactor, the ass, and the Chitauri are pouring out by the droves," said Tony sarcastically. He could just tell Adrian was rolling his eyes at his tone.

_~Is there anything else you can tell us, or should we just get started on containment?~_ asked Loki just as sarcastic.

"Selvig is on the roof. I might have knocked him out when I attacked the Cube...damn thing has a barrier over it."

_~Which means once he wakes up he'll be free of Arathorn's influence. That's news at least. Watch out for Thor, he's going to bottle neck the portal with his lighting and I would rather you didn't get fried,~_ warned Adrian.

Because his control was shoddy when it came to weather, Thor had been put in charge of bottling the portal up. Adrian was going to spend a few minutes to see if he could find the connection between the Chitauri (which according to Thor AND Loki were robots of some sort) to see if he could sever it.

Unlikely, but still worth a shot.

Abigail and Clint would work on separate roofs to call out patterns while Natasha and Steve tried to keep them occupied on the ground. Adrian and Loki were elected to deal with Arathorn directly. Hulk would do what he did best...smash things into little pieces.

Unfortunately due to the fact that New York was so cramped Adrian couldn't call on either of his older brothers in to help...Fenrir would be driven nuts from the pollution alone, and Jörmungandr was still sleeping. At least Adrian assumed he was. He might have woken up because of Arathorn's presence.

Verde had been left on the helicarrier because Bruce wasn't going to risk his pet snake in a fight like this.

The battle for New York had begun.

* * *

Adrian tried to find the connection between the Host and the Chitauri, but with all the electronics in New York it was a failed cause. There was simply too much interference.

Which meant he had to try and stop Arathorn. Loki grabbed one of the Chitauri's vehicles, getting rid of the driver and his partner and the two flew up to where the errant Aesir was waiting.

Arathorn sneered at them both.

"So this is what they've come up with? A washed up has-been who relies more on magic than real strength and a scared child too afraid to even admit his own heritage?"

Loki's eyes narrowed at this arrogant braggart.

"To think you were born before Adrian, yet I still would have chosen him as my heir over you," said Loki.

Arathorn glared at him.

"And to think a Jotun's son believes himself worthy of ruling over those weak Asgardians," he sneered.

"Wait a damn minute. You mean to tell me the origin of Loki according to the Norse was actually _true?!_" said Adrian incredulous.

Loki had dismissed the 'legends' of the humans when he read them, particularly the ones claiming he was actually adopted. If that were true, why hadn't Frigga said something about it centuries ago? Why hadn't Odin told him when he came of age?

"Well isn't this precious. So Odin doesn't even trust his own _son_ enough to tell him the truth of his origins?" smirked Arathorn.

Adrian looked at Loki, who clearly didn't believe one word of that.

"You know if he's not joking about you being adopted, that would explain a lot...and give us one more thing we have in common."

Loki snorted derisively.

"If I _were_ adopted, Odin or Mother would have mentioned it centuries ago. There's really no point hiding something like that once the child has come of age," said Loki.

"Even if the child in question was little more than the spoils of war?" sneered Arathorn.

"Again, why hide it for so long? If I were a prize taken from the Frost Giant wars, why would Odin bother to hide it once I came of age? Your logic is flawed and so is your ego," said Loki flatly.

Years of teaching Adrian had caused Loki to realize that blood does not a family make. Natasha was not his birth mother, but Adrian was her son in every way that mattered. If he truly was the son of a Jotun, then it wouldn't really matter that much at all. Frigga was still his mother in every way that counted, and Odin was his distant father figure he tried to please but always disagreed with.

Arathorn leveled his staff at them both, only for the blast to be blocked by Adrian's fan, which was so big that it was easily the same height he was.

"Clearly negotiations were out. I wasn't planning on talking to you civilly anyway, traitor," said Adrian angrily.

"Traitor? Is that the best you can come up with, you weak-willed brat? You're so pathetic that you were too afraid to openly declare your bloodline in front of the Aesir!" sneered Arathorn.

"Why in Helheim would I be stupid enough to declare myself Loki's son when as far as he had been aware all the others had been killed by Odin or bad luck? No assassin worth their salt would be stupid enough to boldly declare their intentions without insuring they had a back-up plan first!" said Adrian incredulous.

"Poor little Baelfire, always so desperate to fight alongside Thor and his little sycophants," sneered Arathorn.

"Don't speak of them that way!" snarled Loki.

Adrian blinked. There was another sign that Loki did indeed have a crush on Sif. He knew his father didn't really like the others, more like tolerated them...but Sif he occasionally got along with.

"Well if you won't turn off the Tesseract willingly, then I suppose there's no other option but to... KICK YOUR ASS!" said Adrian as he charged into the staff fire, ignoring the pain with ease. He kicked Arathorn in the solar plexus so hard that it sent him flying past the rims Tony used to remove his armor and off the tower itself. Arathorn barely managed to secure a flier before he fell to his death.

He looked at Adrian in open-eyes shock. He had never believed that his 'brother' would be strong enough to actually challenge him, let alone be able to kick him off the tower.

He would have to revise his strategy, immediately.

Adrian looked at Loki.

"How are your magic levels?"

"Until Selvig wakes up, we need to try and figure out a way around the Cube. I'll go above and keep an eye out for him, and insure he is not targeted while I try to find a way through the barrier," said Loki.

Adrian looked at the battle below and grimaced. There was no way an assassin could do enough damage in this war, and Thor needed the hammer. Which left him one option that he hated to do unless he had nothing open to him.

He would have to ask Hel for help. This...was not going to be pleasant. And he knew Natasha was going to kill him if this fight didn't once she found out what he had done.


	19. Chapter 19

Hel was worried. Thanos had found a powerful ally, one that could force her to submit to his will if he succeeded.

So when her youngest and most beloved brother Adrian asked for help through Kara, it took her a moment to realize what he was really asking of her.

"Are you sure of this, brother? The more you use this power, the more you step into my realm. If you go too far even I cannot stop the process," said Hel.

_'I am certain sister. We both knew this would happen at some point... we just didn't know it would be because of a brother who has long since lost his way. I can't help the others with an assassin's craft, and my strength would only go so far before it ends. I need the power of the Crow,'_ said Adrian through Kara.

Hel sighed.

The power of the Crow was not something to be taken lightly. She only unleashed it under extreme circumstances, and she always reclaimed it once the balance had been restored.

The power itself was fairly benign, and alone it wasn't that dangerous. It allowed invulnerability, the ability to heal from any wound, do amazing feats impossible for any mortal and the one who possessed it could control her messengers as if they were their own.

But the price for the power was that the one who used it became steeped in death. She usually chose souls lost to violence and ended before their time because they could handle the strain. And the thing that fueled it was love. Love of one that was lost roughly during the same time period the 'Crow' had died. Usually a lover or a family member.

Adrian had never lost someone that close...except for his surrogate parents Lily and James. She wasn't entirely sure his body could handle that strain without it breaking down once the power left.

"Very well brother. But try not to get killed. I'm not sure if the power will keep you alive if that happens once it's all said and done."

_'Yeah, and I'm fairly positive _you_ would hold me down while my mother yells my ears off for being so damn reckless if I did. On an unrelated note, if I did die because of an overload is there any way you could turn me into your own personal minion or something should I end up back in your realm? It doesn't have to be much, maybe your favorite pet crow or something?'_

Hel choked back a laugh. That _had_ to be the infamous Tony Stark's influence. Even their father had commented on what an odd human Stark was.

"If you somehow end up here, I'll turn you into my own personal pet," she said, trying not to laugh at the idea.

Mostly because if he _did_ die during this battle odds were pretty good he would end up in Valhalla and not Helheim.

* * *

Loki's eyes were wide as Adrian's skin turned pale and his eyes turned cold. Thousands upon thousands of crows descended upon him and his body automatically shifted into one as soon as they touched him.

_~Okay, why the hell are there thousands of black birds all over my tower?!~_ asked Tony irate.

Loki's mouth went dry as he told them what Adrian had done.

"He... he invoked one of Hel's powers over life."

_~HE DID WHAT?!~_ surprisingly enough, it wasn't Natasha who shouted this but Thor.

"Adrian invoked Hel's Crows. He can use their full power as if it were his own," repeated Loki in shock.

_~Explain, NOW,~_ said Natasha.

"Hel has several powers that she can...gift, I suppose you could say...to mortals. These powers are so strong that she only hands them out under very extreme circumstances because Odin would throw a fit otherwise. The power of the Crow is one she almost _never_ hands out to the living."

_~Why not?~_ asked Clint.

"Because the power involves the sacrifice of a soul. The Crow's power is fueled by the sacrifice of a loved one, such as a close lover or a family member. However Hel has only ever given this power to the souls of those lost to needless violence and pain. She has never given it to a _living_ mortal. I'm not sure if Adrian can handle the strain," said Loki.

_~Wait...if this power is fueled by a loved one, then how can Adrian use it?~_ asked Tony.

Natasha was the one to answer this time.

_~I'm guessing Hel is using Adrian's mother to fuel it.~_

_~I thought you were his mother?~ _asked Bruce.

_~Adopted mother. Loki left him in Russia in November and I was the one who found him first. His birth mother was killed by the same mad man he had his scaly brother eat,~_ explained Natasha.

_~So what sort of power does this Crow thing have?~_ asked Tony.

"The Crow is invulnerable to damage and pain, can use the messengers of Hel as if they were their own familiars, and can do things no mortal could do normally. But like I said, this power has only ever been given to the dead. I have no idea what would happen in a living user," said Loki.

* * *

Adrian felt so much power at his fingertips. Like he could do anything. His feathers felt as if they were lighter than air itself.

He saw Arathorn and like a bird of prey about to swoop in on a kill, he dove. Down, down, down he went until his eyes filled with the sight of the one who had caused so much pain and destruction. He spread his wings and angled his talons at Arathorn's eyes.

His raucous caw was all the warning Arathorn had before the crows descended upon him like an avenging angel bent on retribution.

Arathorn cried out in pain and shock as his flier clipped a building. He hit Adrian's form and while his wing hurt he could still fly.

Seeing his mother about to be swarmed by Chitauri from behind, he abandoned Arathorn to help her.

The murder of crows angled their wings like a black cloud against the wind their beaks and talons sharp enough to rip the Chitauri to shreds. Natasha's eyes were wide as the crows cut the beast to pieces.

Tony took one look at the scene and whistled.

_~Damn...and here I though the movie '_The Birds'_ was just fiction. That's scarier than facing the Big Guy when he's pissed!~_ he said.

However the force behind the Chitauri also saw this display...and he was _pissed_.

Thanos sought to court Death, yet here Death openly favored another above him. And that was something he would never permit.

Loki watched as the Chitauri went from killing as many as they could to turning their focus entirely on the crows.

Thanos knew that the one who had invoked Death was in crow form, and that to end them he had to destroy the crow powering that mortal.

The problem was that Adrian wasn't being powered by the crow Hel had specially created solely to favor the souls of the dead with a chance of retribution.

He was being powered _directly_ by Hel herself.

* * *

Erik Selvig woke to a hellish scene below. He gasped as he came out of whatever Arathorn had done to him.

"About time you woke up. We need to close this portal before everything really goes to Helheim," said Loki irritably.

"Where... Where am I?"

"If you're afraid of heights then I would avoid looking below. How do we close this portal?" repeated Loki.

"The Cube is pure energy, but you can't defend against yourself," said Erik.

"That's all I needed to hear," said Loki. He looked around the roof until he found Kara who had flown up beside him.

Loki knew basic crow, mostly because he had been bored one century and Hel had taught him as a joke.

He picked Kara up carefully and made a series of caws that only a bird would understand.

Kara cawed back, before she spread the message to the others.

Suddenly the mass of birds veered away from the Chitauri and straight for Arathorn who was busy with the Hulk. Thor was keeping the Chitauri from coming near the two with his lightning.

Loki didn't need to see what happened next to wince. A massive cloud of birds descended upon his errant 'son' and there was a loud roar from the Hulk as they managed to successfully steal the staff from him. He knew that Arathorn would have multiple cuts from the beaks and talons.

Five minutes later the cloud spiraled above him and Erik, who ducked out of instinct mostly. Something dropped from the cloud and they perched all around Loki expectantly.

Loki walked up to the staff and grasped it firmly. It bucked under his hand as if to return to Arathorn.

"I have the staff and I can close the portal! Does anyone copy?" said Loki.

_~Do it!~_

_~Don't! Fury said the Council overruled him and is sending a nuke. It's set to detonate in under three minutes!~_ said Tony.

"So aim the damn thing through the portal and we'll close it once you have it through!" said Loki as if it were obvious.

It took Tony a few minutes to find and aim the missile through the portal. But on the way there he failed to make a small, rather obvious calculation.

His suit wasn't designed for space travel. And the suit could only keep his air in for so long before he passed out. He was lucky he didn't die immediately.

The crows saw Tony fall...and since they were all connected to Adrian they took off and slowed his descent since he couldn't. At least enough that when the Hulk caught him he wasn't too badly jarred.

Arathorn found himself surrounded by several not-so-amused Avengers and a rather pale Adrian who looked like death warmed over.

Arathorn took one look at Adrian and flinched. At that moment he looked like a demon more than a god.

* * *

Everyone gathered around Adrian. Loki was nearby, mostly out of concern.

He took a deep breath...and let go of the power Hel had given him. Usually this happened naturally, as the dead had no desire to remain among the living, only to pass on once their task was over. To see their loved ones again.

However Adrian was still alive, and this power came direct from Hel instead of through an intermediary.

So there was really no telling what would happen.

Color rushed back into Adrian's features. Most of the crows, barring Kara and Su, vanished with a racket back into Helheim's embrace. Adrian sagged into the first chair he could find. His magical core was drained almost dry trying to maintain the amount of power he had gotten from the Crow.

Loki immediately went into mother hen mode, checking him over with his magic.

"I don't believe it. Aside from being drained magically, there's no side effects. At most he won't be able to do anything for a while with his magic for a few weeks. This doesn't make any sense," said Loki in surprise and open relief.

"Not quite," said Natasha. Loki and the others looked at her, and she explained. "You said that this power comes from his sister Hel, right? Didn't she give Adrian Kara and Su as familiars back when his core was still settling in?"

"Come to think of it, isn't Adrian's animal form a crow anyway? Exactly what changed when he got that power boost?" asked Abigail.

Everyone did a collective blink.

"Actually that is a good question. Adrian's form is a crow...so what exactly did this power boost do to him aside from drain his magic dry for a while?" asked Clint.

"In any event, you had better not do that again any time soon Adrian, or I'll block your magic for a year," said Loki.

He was surprised his son had survived that strain on his soul without being killed. Then again, from what he had seen Adrian hadn't needed to use the 'resurrection' ability that Hel had given the Crows.

Probably afraid of what Natasha would do if he had been killed even once.

* * *

Thanos was furious. Death had not only granted favor to another, but the brat didn't have the decency to die from using her power. The living should not be allowed to use Death's power as if it were their own. He had no idea who this...Adrian Romanov was, but when next they met he would not live to see another rising of his planet's sun.

His rage towards Arathorn, the arrogant brat, was tempered by the fact that he could never hope to match Death's power over life itself. He was doomed to failure the moment she blessed that man as her avatar among the mortals.

* * *

Adrian was sulking.

Ever since he had invoked Kara's true nature, he had been bed-bound and forced to stay there by every Avenger in the tower...once Loki had fixed the place with magic anyway.

He wasn't even allowed to get on the internet or do anything outside of read...and to make matters worse, since they had captured Arathorn and Fury had agreed to let Adrian return the Cube to where it wouldn't do nearly as much damage (as in he was taking it back to Asgard) that meant he would have to present himself to the court of Asgard as Loki's heir.

Thor was having entirely too much enjoyment forcing Adrian to suffer through the same boring lessons on the Court he had to go through when he was a child.

Phil, when Adrian's magic had slowly released him, had taken to dropping by the room to enjoy his misery. Revenge was sweet.

Of course there was some comfort to be had.

Abigail, as Adrian's girlfriend, had to suffer with him. Mostly because as Loki had so _helpfully_ pointed out to an amused Clint and Natasha, she had the highest potential to end up his _wife_. And if that happened, she would have to know the ins and outs of Asgard's court just like he did.

The fact she later used said trickster god as target practice for six hours was just a bonus for Adrian to enjoy. And Thor, who found it hilarious.

There was also the fact that Tony and Erik almost had a container ready for them to transport the Cube back to Asgard, with Arathorn in tow.

Loki had spoken to Frigga via dream-speak so Odin was well aware of the fact that it was Adrian's doing that Arathorn had been captured...and at what risk he took.

Because Adrian was returning to Asgard under his _real_ name with the true culprit behind the attack of the Jotuns and the one who attempted to kill Baldur and assumed the throne...as well as returning the Tesseract to where it really belonged, he had to be ready.

But just because he was finally coming out into the open among the realms as Loki's heir didn't mean he had to like these particular lessons.


	20. Chapter 20

They left Midgard and landed right on Asgard with Arathorn still in chains. He kept shooting Adrian these looks, not that he cared.

"So. You came back. And with gifts for the King," said Heimdall. He and 'Baelfire' got along somewhat, but the boy had kept to himself.

The sound of horses approached them, and there was enough for each of them. Adrian flinched when he saw them.

Just because he knew _how_ to ride a horse didn't mean he enjoyed it. And judging from the smirk his father had on his face, he knew damn well that Adrian was cursing the fact he had invoked the Crow now, because it meant he had to ride the horse to the palace instead of fly. Thor was grinning at the looks Adrian shot the steed as well.

That is, until Adrian finally noticed which one was left.

"It figures. The one brother I never had the chance to meet and he insists on showing up. Hello Sleipnir," said Adrian dryly.

Odin's personal mount, born by Loki when he was testing out a mare as an animal form, was the one brother Adrian never had the chance to meet personally. He spent more time with Hel, Fenrirsûlfr and Jörmungandr than he had with Sleipnir.

Adrian gave him a wary eye.

"You're not going to prank me by tossing me off of you later are you?" he asked.

Sleipnir neighed, though Adrian saw a mischievous glint in his eyes. Loki snickered.

Thankfully Sleipnir withheld the urge to drop Adrian on the ground...he had been punished enough trying to hold onto his brother while they rode into the palace.

Arathorn's eyes expressed his disgust that Adrian could barely ride a horse. Why was he afraid of this...child?

(To be fair, Adrian had to worry about twice the number of legs under him.)

* * *

Adrian made sure to keep Loki and Thor near him when they walked into the throne room. Just because he was allowed back didn't mean he was abandoning all his caution. He had been raised on horror stories of what Odin might do if he learned he was around.

Arathorn was securely bound between the same guards he had once worked with.

Odin gave him a one-eyed glare.

"Arathorn, you have disgraced your father's name and heritage, and the post which you once held. You attempted to usurp the throne and nearly killed a Prince of Asgard. If it was not for Frigga, you would be killed on the spot. As it is, you will be placed into the prisons until such time as Ragnarok comes," said Odin.

"Please, what heritage? The son of a Jotun? You took the discarded child of Laufey into your own home!" sneered Arathorn.

Seeing that Loki clearly didn't believe the ramblings of his 'son', Odin made a note to tell Loki, Adrian and Thor the full story later.

"Enough! You have already caused enough damage, you foolish child!" barked Odin.

The guards escorted Arathorn to his new cell. A private one, because Odin didn't want the traitorous child to gain any allies that could possibly help him escape.

Once he was out of the room, Odin turned to Adrian who, while still firmly between Loki and Thor, stood proudly.

"I see that you have returned, Baelfire."

"My name is Adrian. Adrian Romanov," said Adrian.

"Adrian. Why did you lie about your nature in Asgard?" asked Odin loudly.

It was clear he was putting on a bit of a show for everyone else.

"I had told that if you learned of who I was you would not be pleased. So I felt discretion was the better option. I would never had come to Asgard at all if I hadn't accidentally picked up Thor's hammer," said Adrian.

"Adrian would have waited until Thor took the throne before he approached the palace. He knew Thor would be more open towards my experiments than you were," said Loki.

"When last we met, you left without permission. Why did you go to Midgard?" asked Odin.

"Midgard is my home, as much as I hope Asgard to be. I was born there, I was raised there. My mother, the woman who took me in without any thought of reward when my own was killed, raised me as her son. If I am not welcome on Asgard, then I will simply return to Midgard until I am welcome."

"I hope for your sake such deception will not happen again," said Odin.

"The only reason I hid who I am is because I was warned not to let you find out I was Loki's son," said Adrian.

"As you have brought back the Tesseract and the true traitor, I am willing to allow your presence...for now. But you must earn your place as Loki's heir. You will be given all the same rights as an ordinary warrior of Asgard."

Adrian could live with having to earn his place. He had been raised to earn what he had.

If Adrian thought dealing with Arathorn was bad, he had not counted on the fan girls.

With news that Odin had declared Adrian Loki's son (even if he had to earn the right to be named his heir the hard way) several of the more desperate females of Asgard descended on him like locusts.

Loki found it hilarious, mostly because he knew Adrian would never be anything other than polite towards them. Abigail would kick his ass if he wasn't.

Of course that was nothing to the truth about Loki's heritage.

* * *

Loki, Thor, Adrian and Frigga all entered the room. Odin waited for them to sit down before he told them the story of the Frost Giant wars. Adrian was interested...mostly in why Odin was telling them about this now.

"The Casket was not the only thing I took from Jotunheim that day. There was a child, small for a Jotun, abandoned in the temple. When exposed to the light of Asgard, he lost the skin color of his heritage...that child was you Loki. I had hoped that you could lead the Jotuns and bind our two races together and end this feud," said Odin.

"But it didn't work out that way did it?" said Loki. He wasn't happy to find out he really was born a Jotun's son. Judging by the look on his face, he wasn't happy it had been kept a secret for so long.

Seeing the dark look on his father's face, Adrian clapped his arm on Loki's shoulder. Loki looked up, his eyes darkened.

"Look at the bright side. We have yet another thing in common. We're both adopted by loving families?" said Adrian.

Loki shook his head to clear it. Adrian was right. He was no less Natasha's son just because she had taken him in, so why would he be any different?

Odin was surprised that Adrian was able to dispel Loki's dark mood so easily.

"Besides, who said that we have to care what our origins are. I certainly don't hold a grudge against you for using a surrogate, do I?"

Loki chuckled.

"Good point. But still, why did you wait so long to tell me the truth?"

"You are no less my son, even if I did take you from Laufey's realm. There simply wasn't the right time to tell you," said Odin.

"At least you had time to adjust to the idea thanks to Arathorn being an ass," said Adrian.

* * *

Adrian had two options given to him by Loki. He could either suffer through the same endless boring classes on the aristocracy of the Nine Realms...or he could go out and learn it himself.

Odin had acknowledged he was Loki's son, but he was not Loki's heir. He had to earn it first. That didn't excuse him from the classes though.

Adrian didn't hesitate. He chose to travel the realms as a wandering youth, taking the old paths instead of the bifrost except as an emergency exit, and actually learning about the nine realms first hand.

He had too much wanderlust in him to stay put and learn all that boring stuff without falling asleep, and if given the option Loki would have done the same thing in a heartbeat.

He still had to contact Loki and Natasha twice a month every two weeks though.

Adrian packed his traveling bag (a backpack spelled to look like something found in Asgard) with plenty of food, water, and a sackful of gold.

He vanished in the morning without a word.

* * *

"Bae!" squealed Eowyn.

"Eowyn! I missed you squirt," said Adrian.

Though his true heritage had come out (as well as the conditions to being named Loki's heir) the children of the village he had hidden in originally still thought of him as Baelfire. The blacksmith was still in shock that the awkward youth he had taken in as a minor apprentice had been Loki's son.

"So what brings you back, Lord Baelfire?" teased Merida, Eowyn's mother.

"Just Bae is fine. My father gave me a choice...I could either suffer the endless lessons on the nine realms or I could go out and learn about them first hand. I'm afraid once I had leave to go where I wanted, I lost any love of sitting down for hours...especially if it's something that dull."

Adrian was a very active person. He could sit down with a good book, but he found the audio books were just as enjoyable because he could practice new forms or work out the old ones while listening to it.

Merida chuckled.

"What of your grandfather, the king?"

"Let's just say I don't intend to stay in one place long enough to learn what he thought of my father's idea. If I must earn my position, then I will do it my own way. I would rather have word of my deeds reach the Aesir from others who do not know of me than to declare them myself," said Adrian grandly.

"My, someone has been learning how to speak like royal," said Merida laughing.

"Actually was reading _Macbeth_ on the way here and Shakespearean speech tends to stick with you for a while," said Adrian dryly.

"_Macbeth?"_

"It's a play about a man who is told by three witches that he will become a lord and then king...and then he takes it to heart and ends up killing his cousin who was the king and taking his place. It's rather hard to read sometimes but still a great story," said Adrian.

"Not taking any of that to heart I hope?" she said.

"I like Shakespeare, and frankly the idea of killing my own grandfather doesn't really appeal to me that much. Now beating up Thor on the other hand..."

Merida laughed. It was common knowledge that Baelfire often sent Thor on his ass when they trained together, before the coronation and the truth came out that he was really Loki's son from Midgard.

"Exactly how does this 'Shakespeare' speak?" asked Merida.

"'I dare do all that may become a man; who dares do more is none'," quoted Adrian.

"Wise man."

"A great playwright and wordsmith," agreed Adrian.

"Well the children will be delighted to see you again. So...have you any of your own?"

Adrian tripped on nothing at the sly way she asked.

"I have a girlfriend. She has an adopted sister on Midgard...her mother was killed by monsters who wear the guise of a man but is none. Abigail was rather annoyed with me when she learned she would have to join me in my lessons while I was in the healers," said Adrian chuckled.

"A fiancee! Well that alone is news for celebration!"

"What? No! We haven't even gotten that far, not to mention Frigga hasn't even met her yet," said Adrian quickly.

Unknown to him Hel was keeping an eye on him, and an evil idea came to her.

Adrian was right in that Frigga had yet to meet his girlfriend Abby...and it was the solemn duty of older siblings and parents everywhere to embarrass the younger ones. Especially in the case of the big sister.

She never had a chance to do this with Fenrir or Jor...

And if Loki got a good laugh out of the idea...well, it just meant Hel had cheered up their father for a while.

Besides, telling Adrian Abigail was in Asgard meeting his grandmother was the perfect way to insure he visited regularly.

* * *

Abigail was nervous...and more than a bit irritated at her boyfriend. If he had stuck around she would be back on Earth (Midgard) and having a nice day off with Zoe about now.

Loki had convinced Odin to bring her up to Asgard...partly as a way to insure Adrian would actually come back and visit them every once in a while, but also so they could meet his girlfriend.

Adrian was very loyal to Abby...he never looked twice at any other girls unless they were casting a very strong spell on him. And for his magical resistance training, it had to be very strong indeed.

Which meant if anyone was going to cause a break up, it would be Abigail.

Thing was, she never wanted to break up with him. He was a great guy and he could keep up with her in a fight. So odds were (and Loki was very clear on this) that the two would one day end up married.

Which was how he had convinced Odin to let him bring her to Asgard in the first place.

She was still using him as target practice for that.


	21. Chapter 21

It had been two months since Adrian came to Asgard, properly this time...and he still hadn't heard from Abigail. Considering she tended to hang around Hawkeye (who was almost permanently partnered with his mother) that could only mean bad news.

So Adrian called his father to ask Heimdall if he knew where she was.

Only to come face to face with said girl.

"Abby? I thought this line went to dad?"

"_Yeah, I'm on Asgard. Coincidentally I may have made Loki a teeny-tiny bit paranoid about arrows now..."_ said Abigail a little bit annoyed.

"Why are you on Asgard?!"

"Someone_ thought it would be funny to tell your grandparents about us...and then convinced Odin that it would be a good idea to meet his grandson's fiancee now rather than after he became an heir to the throne. I've been here for over a month now,"_ said Abby.

Adrian groaned.

"Dammit. I bet this is dad's idea of insuring I actually come to visit. And Frigga probably...no, she definitely helped with the convincing," said Adrian.

"_In any case could you return so these musclebound morons will quit trying to hit on me? I've had to hang around Sif just to get rid of them!"_

"I'm on the next flight there. Just hang tight," promised Adrian.

But first, he had to do a little shopping to prank Loki with. No way was he letting this one slide!

* * *

Loki's first indication that Adrian had finally learned about Abigail was the massive pie to the face. Thor had started laughing when he realized what his brother had been hit with.

"Where's Abigail?" he asked the nearest maid.

"The gardens, milord."

"Right. Time to show that little brat who's the top prankster around here," said Loki.

* * *

Abigail was suffering yet another one of Fandral's come ons (normally done after a practice match so she had no issues with kicking his ass) when someone slapped her ass from behind.

Under normal circumstances she would punch the bastard responsible. However she recognized that hand.

"Sorry Fandral, she's taken," said a voice she really missed.

"It's about damn time! What took you so long?" she asked turning.

Adrian was right behind her.

"Had to get something to pay Loki back for dragging you up here," deadpanned Adrian.

"In that case, it's perfectly acceptable. Need any help?"

"The more the merrier, besides, shooting arrows in dad's ass does get boring after a while," chuckled Adrian.

There was a sudden rainshower above his head.

"I knew you were behind that attack."

"Prank war?" said Adrian grinning.

"Absolutely. Asgard is boring as hell after a century or two," agreed Loki without hesitation.

Fandral winced. The last time Loki had a prank war it took ODIN to get him to stop.

* * *

Frigga was amused. Pranks had been going around for over a week, and she alone knew why aside from the culprits.

"Another prank war?" sighed Odin.

"Adrian was less than pleased Loki brought his girlfriend to Asgard without telling him."

Odin had met Abigail...and had been impressed. Had she been born on any world but Midgard, she would have joined the ranks of Sif and Brunhilde years ago.

She stayed only because Loki wanted to see the look on his son's face when he found out she had meet his grandparents.

"Can you inform them to tone it down a bit?" asked Odin.

"I'll let Loki know you're onto them. They should be done in about a week," promised Frigga with a laugh.

And sure enough the prank war settled down. It was a draw between the teams of Abigail and Adrian against Thor and Loki.

Abigail was just happy that the men of Asgard were finally leaving her alone after Adrian gave her that hickey.

* * *

A month after that (and being dragged back to Asgard by a rather bored Thor who had bumped into him during yet another raid by bandits) Adrian found himself in a rather...unique situation.

Odin had him stuck in a room being quizzed on what he knew of politics of the realms. For every answer he got right, Odin's eyebrows went up.

Mostly because he had Heimdall checking on Adrian, and the man had never once gone anywhere near the palaces or ruling bodies of the realms he visited.

Loki however, was well aware of Natasha's training methods. One of which happened to be integrating yourself with the lower classes and becoming one of them for a short period of time. Which mean Adrian learned about each realm from the ground up, and was more aware of who the ruling bodies were and who ran them than even Thor was. The peasants knew about their kings and queens, they just didn't care. But they taught their children about them, if only so they knew who to avoid unless summoned.

"Enough. Tell me, Adrian, just how is it that you know more about the ruling classes of the nine realms when even Thor has trouble?" asked the woman who would have been his tutor in the subject.

"My mother," said Adrian with a shrug.

"Your...mother?"

"My mother is an elite assassin, one who is rather well known on Midgard. Part of her training she had me go through as a child was how to blend in with the working class. No one expects to find the son of an assassin among them, they're more likely to hide with the nobles who people would be too afraid to offend. As a result, you tend to learn who rules which realm, how long they've been in power and who their family is. Those below serve the people above them, and they make it a point to warn their children in case they attract the attention of anyone from a much higher class than them. They were more than happy to enlighten me on the subject since I was a traveler," said Adrian.

Loki couldn't help it, he snorted openly.

"I believe that was more of a case of 'who not to piss off and why'."

"Semantics," countered Adrian.

The tutor looked at Odin helplessly. However Adrian learned the ruling classes, it was clear she wasn't needed. It had taken the man less time to learn about the nine realms and who ran them than it had to teach Thor the same information that almost never stuck to his brain. Loki had learned it, but he was always the more subtle of the brothers and preferred to read rather than brawl.

"It would seem that your mother's method of teaching is quite effective," said Odin even.

"She is a very good teacher...and it didn't hurt that she tended to throw beanbags at my head if I looked like I was about to fall asleep," said Adrian. Beanbags loaded with a minute amount of the Kiss.

Adrian had developed his immunity early on, partly from handling and partly from his mother's training methods.

"So what else was I supposed to learn while cooped up in a room all day?" he asked.

"Etiquette..." started the tutor...until she saw the man fall almost immediately asleep at the thought of more of those lessons.

Loki helpfully zapped him.

"Cheer up. It should go much faster than the last time you had to take them while in training for your mother's family."

"Don't remind me! All those freaking spoons and cutlery! And all the lessons of how not to act around the noblewomen! I avoided even thinking of Russia after that horror fest!" groaned Adrian.

Loki was clearly amused, the tutor not so much.

"Has he had to take such lessons on nobility before?" she asked.

"His grandmother on Midgard forced him through an entire six months of it, and the only reason it took half the time was because he wanted to get it over with the first time instead of taking remedial lessons. I believe his mother took great pleasure in using it as a threat in the rare occasions he misbehaved."

"Why did you have to put me with a woman who was the granddaughter of Russian nobility and who's mother would recognize my birth name on sight?" whined Adrian.

He had nearly been forced to undergo a second series of lessons on English nobility because of his birth name, until Natasha reminded her mother that her son would rather be a Romanov than a Potter or a Black because of how backwards and insular the English were. He still had to learn it just in case.

"I dare say that Adrian would be just as charming as Thor with more luck when it comes to remembering what is and isn't allowed. What else is there?"

The tutor looked at a loss. Thor was barely acceptable, and it was true Adrian would likely have better luck in a more social setting than his uncle. And since he clearly didn't need any lessons on nobility, she had nothing to do.

Odin dismissed her and looked at Loki.

"It would appear that your decision to let Adrian leave Asgard was a wise one."

"I know my son. He hates being cooped up since he learned how to turn into a crow, and sitting around for hours on end for something he considers boring would be torture for him."

Loki had gotten Abigail around that hurdle by doing it while practicing her bow. He quizzed her while she shot her arrows into a target (mainly things with Amora and the Executioner's face on it) and she passed with flying colors.

If, an hour later when Odin was satisfied that Adrian will at least be able to handle court life better than Thor, he leaves the room at a rather fast pace before shouting 'FREEDOM!' with an insane cackle, no one comments on it. Aside from Odin giving Loki a Look.

"Adrian _really_ hates lessons on noble life?" said Loki sheepishly.

If Odin thought Adrian would stick around after learning he wouldn't have to suffer more lessons on nobility, he was wrong.

Instead he decides to abscond with Abigail and take her on a tour of the nine realms to introduce her to his new friends.

* * *

"So when's the wedding?" asked a mischievous Eowyn.

Adrian looked at Abigail sheepishly. He had proposed to her during the prank war, partly to lure Loki and Thor out of hiding but also because he genuinely loved her. Abigail had said yes because she knew that Adrian was a rare guy and she would be a fool to let him slip away.

Besides, Frigga was somewhat intimidating when she put her mind to it.

There was, however, a minor problem to just getting hitched.

They had no idea who was going to walk Abigail down the isle on Earth (they were going to have two weddings...one for Earth and one on Asgard, mostly because Earth still had trouble acknowledging that there were other inhabited worlds out there without freaking out, and their governments didn't acknowledge Asgard's authority) and it was something that had sparked a bit of a debate between them.

Abigail thought of Blade as an older brother, and he technically was considering he was raised by Whistler since he was thirteen. But Clint was also her brother, and she knew he would want in on it.

"I have no idea. We're still trying to get the details down," admitted Adrian sheepishly.

Actually he had an idea about that, but he wanted to surprise Abigail.

* * *

_On Earth..._

Clint and Blade were having a bit of a stare-off. Mostly because one of them was going to be beside Adrian and the other was walking Abby down the isle. Who knew Blade had a protective streak towards family?

So when Adrian called and offered a new option, the stalemate ended.

Clint was going to be his best man while Blade walked Abby. Zoe was going to be the ring girl while some of the younger mutants acted as the flower girls.

Since it was going to be held in Xavier's mansion (partially because he was good friends with the Professor but mostly so they would have a rather large amount of back up in case someone came after Adrian because of who his mother was) the mutants were all excited about it.

Mostly because this was something fun for people who weren't mutants but would defend them without hesitation. Besides, they all loved Adrian.

"I still can't believe he's getting married," said Natasha over another shot of vodka.

"Face it Nat, you raised him and now he's grown up," said Clint. Blade was currently making a list of upgrades he was going to ask Adrian to do for him, since he was one of the few magicals that the half-vampire trusted to do it right the first time.

Natasha downed her drink. It was hard to believe that a few decades ago she had been bouncing her son on her knee between missions, and now he was planning to marry his girlfriend of two years. She didn't know whether to be happy or cry.

"Look at the bright side...at least you know he still calls you every week. Loki said that he's lucky to hear from him once a month since he went to Asgard," offered Clint. It was weird seeing Natasha like this.

It was one thing to learn about the Black Widow having a son... that had been pushing the edges of his weird-shit-meter the first time. But it was another thing entirely to watch as one of the most feared assassins in the world freak out over said son getting married and generally acting like any other mother her age.

Perhaps, at it's core, Clint was just glad that Natasha could still feel like a regular mother even after all the crap she had been through in her life.

"Didn't you once tell me that you two set them up to start with?"

"More like we told Abigail she might as well jump him because he had never had a date in his entire life," said Natasha openly grinning.

Any other male his age would have been mortified by the thought of his mother arranging for the son to get a girlfriend she approved of. For Adrian he had taken it in stride... he had been raised by Natasha and had to undergo several years of learning how nobility worked from his grandmother. He was very well aware that he might have ended up with an arranged marriage to someone he could barely tolerate. The fact that Natasha had only nudged the two together rather than force them was a nice surprise...and he was the one who had chosen to marry her, not the other way around.


End file.
